Abu Jakir :
As dusk settled over the city on Thursday, a red-and-green bus rolled slowly through a sea of chanting supporters and stopped at the gates of Evercare Hospital. At 5:54 p.m., Tarique Rahman stepped inside — not as a triumphant political leader alone, but as a son coming to see his ailing mother.
Inside the hospital lay Khaleda Zia, the former prime minister and chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, whose long illness has kept her largely out of public life. Outside, thousands awaited people for a glimpse of the man who had been absent from the country for more than 17 years, their voices rising in slogans of loyalty, hope and defiance.
For Tarique Rahman, the moment carried a weight that went beyond politics.
“My heart remains bound to her side at the hospital bed,” he had told supporters just hours earlier, standing on a temporary stage along the July 36 Expressway — widely known as the 300-Feet Road in Purbachal — where a massive reception had been organised following his return from London. “She loves her people and her country more than her own life.
As her son, I ask for your prayers for her recovery.” While, theBNP’s cultural organisation Jasas artists started music on the stage, Tarique Rahman made them stopped saying “Stop singing song, but pray for country’s most respected leader Begum Khaleda Zia.”
It was his first speech on Bangladeshi soil since leaving the country amid political turmoil nearly two decades ago. Yet even as the crowd surged and the chants echoed — “Tarique Rahman, fearless,” and “He will return to Bangladesh in hero’s attire” — his words remained anchored in concern for his mother.
The journey from the rally to Evercare Hospital, usually brief, stretched into hours. On both sides of the road, thousands of party workers and supporters stood waiting, many for most of the afternoon, determined to catch a fleeting look at their leader. Mr Rahman responded by repeatedly waving from his vehicle, a silent exchange of affection and acknowledgement amid the crush.
Senior BNP leaders, including standing committee member Salahuddin Ahmed and the party chairperson’s personal physician AZM Zahid Hossain, accompanied him to the hospital. Inside, the atmosphere shifted from exuberance to solemnity.
Earlier in the day, Rahman had arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 11:40 a.m., accompanied by his wife, Dr Zubaida Rahman, and their daughter, Zaima Rahman.
While he proceeded directly to the rally, his wife and daughter went to their Gulshan residence — a home he had left behind nearly 20 years ago — before later joining him at the hospital.
For many Bangladeshis, the day unfolded as a convergence of the personal and the political: a son returning from exile, a mother battling illness, and a party seeking renewal after years of absence from power.
By the time Rahman entered Evercare Hospital, night had fallen. The chants outside continued, but inside the walls, the moment was quieter — defined not by slogans or speeches, but by a son finally standing beside his mother, bound by love, memory and an unfinished national story.
