DHAKA: The influential son of Bangladesh’s ex-Premier Khaleda Zia has left the country and “retired from active politics,” a lawyer said yesterday. Tareque Rahman, often referred to as the most powerful man in Bangladesh during Khaleda’s stint as premier between 2001 and 2006, was granted bail last week although he still faces 13 charges of corruption.
He flew out of Bangladesh late Thursday night amid tight security, lawyer Mahbubuddin Khokon told AFP. His departure came hours after a reunion with his mother, who was released on bail earlier on Thursday after more than a year in custody.
Khokon said Rahman had flown to Britain to seek treatment for a spinal injury, which lawyers allege he sustained while being tortured in custody. Khokon said his client had quit the post of senior joint general secretary with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which he has held since 2002, just before leaving the country.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Hasina Wajed will return home from the United States early next month, party officials said yesterday, to try to mend rifts in her party ahead of elections planned for December. Hasina will likely face longtime rival Khaleda in the December poll.
The army-backed interim government granted parole to Hasina, who was detained last year on alleged corruption charges, in June so she could go the United States for medical treatment. “She will return in early October,” a senior leader of Hasina’s Awami League said.
Acting party chief Zillur Rahman said a rift over the post of Awami’s general secretary would probably not be resolved until Hasina’s return. The rift appeared after general secretary Abdul Jalil, who was also detained for alleged corruption and released on parole for treatment in Singapore, returned last week.
