Tarique will return to politics: Khaleda

Opposition BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia has said elder son Tarique Rahman will return to politics once he fully recovers and gets back home from the UK.

“You all please pray for him. He will come back among you after recovering from illness,” she said at a rally in Bogra on Friday marking the 45th birthday celebrations of Tarique.

Tarique, the senior joint secretary, went abroad after securing bail in a raft of graft cases.

The military-installed caretaker government framed Tarique and tortured him and sent him abroad to make her party lose in the general elections, the former prime minister alleged.

The BNP’s student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal organised the rally at the Sultanpur High School ground.

The Chhatra Dal’s seven-day celebrations marking the event were rounded off in Bogra on Friday.

At wayside rallies, Khaleda alleged that the Awami League-government wanted to stop Tarique returning to Bangladesh.

He did a lot to develop the country, but a slew of cases had been filed to destroy him.

She handed Tk 1,000 to 100 talented students each, and distributed cattle, goats, sewing machine and winter cloth among people .

The former prime minister left Dhaka on Friday morning in a motorcade of more than a hundred vehicles to attend the ceremonies.

Accompanied by BNP vice chair Sarwari Rahman, secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain, standing committee member Khanadaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, former speaker Jamir Uddin Sircar and other senior BNP leaders and MPs, Khaleda left the capital at 10am.

She stopped at roadside rallies in Tangail town, Elenga and Sirajganj.

Local BNP leaders and supporters thronging both sides of the highway greeted Khaleda’s motorcade at Ashulia, Tongi and Gazipur along her route out of the city.

Over a hundred vehicles comprising the opposition leader’s motorcade were carrying members of BNP metropolitan wing, and BNP associate organisations Jubo Dal, Swechchhasebak Dal, Krishak Dal, Mohila Dal and Chhatra Dal.

Khaleda has a packed schedule in Bogra.

She also present winter clothes and relief materials among the homeless, and attend award giving ceremony and cultural show there.

Tarique Rahman, the eldest son of Khaleda and late president Ziaur Rahman, was born on Nov 20, 1965 in Bogra.

She also claimed that BNP had been robbed of two seats in the Dec 2008 general elections.