Tarique Rahman – back home from virtual to in-person

Tarique Rahman on way back home from London. Photo taken from his Facebook post put from the Biman commercial flight.

Mostafa Kamal Majumder

In another three hours Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the BNP, Bangladesh’s largest political party, will land in Dhaka at around noon today ending 17 years for life in exile compelled by the so-called 1/11 rulers way back on 11 September 2008 in a severely injured state. 

The flight is scheduled to first land in Sylhet and after an hour fly to Dhaka. He set off from London’s Heathrow Airport last midnight saying good bye to thousands Bangladeshi expatriates who ventured there defying the leader’s advice not to take the trouble in the cold of night.

His arrival will mark his in-person presence. Virtually, politically, mentally and emotionally he had always been present in Bangladesh. Tarique Rahman reorganised the BNP party machine from grassroots to the national level sitting in London and addressed meetings and conferences virtually, thanks to the modern video conferencing technology.

It was through a video conference at the Westin Dhaka Hotel way back in 2002 that the BNP Leader steered the launch of the 27-point charter of repair of the statecraft (structural reform) which was later transformed into the 31-point programme inserting inputs from BNP’s alliance partners.

Tarique Rahman could not walk on his feet, nor move his limbs freely when he was flown to London for medical treatment. Inhuman torture by his captors rendered this physical harm. Military rulers has said he had been allowed to go abroad on condition that he would not indulge in politics. His younger brother Arafat Rahman died an untimely death from injuries sustained from such torture. Their mother and the mother of democracy in Bangladesh, Begum Khaleda Zia, has been turned physically crippled after six years of stage-managed jail term.

Why this barbarous persecution on Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman’s family? They were not in power when the 1/11 takeover was staged 11 January, 2007. Those people backed by foreigners and their local collaborators failed to prove any wrong, financial or otherwise, by Tarique Rahman or Begum Khaleda Zia, three times the elected Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Yet they were charged in fabricated cases and awarded jail terms in manipulated judgments. Special District Judge Motahar Hossain had to leave the country after acquitting Tarique Rahman of the charge of money laundering by refusing to read out an unsubstantiated written judgment given at his court room after months of persuasion to deliver the same.

Failing to find traces of dishonesty of Tarique Rahman an officer, working at the instance of the 1/11 masterminds, then remarked, “See how smart this boy is. He has no bank accounts.” 

We are aware of the lonely feelings of the members of the family when they underwent all these ordeals. Khaleda herself has said to the media, unkind officers had threatened to take away her sons from her if she did not agree to leave the country under their pressure. Khaleda did not give in.

As Tarique Rahman continued to successfully reorganise the party under the Fascist regime in Bangladesh through virtual interactions and statements, order was issued from a bench of the politicised High Court, banning the publication of his statements in the news media. This media blackout remained in force till the victory of the people’s upsurge on 5 August 2024.

The blackout did not stop the indomitable Tarique Rahman. His virtual address of political meetings, indoor or outdoor, often interrupted by slowing down or stopping Internet signals, continued all through the movement. 

From August 5 onwards Tarique Rahman has been fully present in the mass media. Due to some compulsions he had to stay back in London until yesterday. Today the 25th of December on the holy Christmas Day the warier, the leader of the masses is back home, in-person.