Protest against Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Exiled Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader and party supremo Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman allegedly held meetings with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI in a Gulf nation to hatch a plan to oust the Sheikh Hasina government, according to a report by The Economic Times.
The report alleges that Rahman travelled to a Middle Eastern country a few months earlier to meet ISI officials in order to make plans to launch a campaign and create conditions in Bangladesh for ousting Hasina.
It also claims that in the run up to the fall of the Hasina govt, Rahman became active on social media platform X, and encouraged the movement to oust the elected government through street power and violence.
The inclusion of a former deputy president of the radical Hefazat-e-Islam in the interim government, has not been well received in the more progressive sections of Bangladeshi society, the publication claimed.
Moreover, Hefazat-e-Islam and Sheikh Haisna's Awami League have traditionally never seen eye to eye. Hefazat allegedly wants to alter names of institutions in Bangladesh and also bring in radical laws. They reportedly carried out protests against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bangladesh.
Rahman also played an important role in the anti-India campaign, 'India Out' just after Hasina returned to power in the January elections.
The movement not only aimed at boycotting Indian goods, but also attempted to gain ground against Hasina and appease hardliners like Jamaat-E-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam.
In 2018, a Bangladesh court sentenced Tarique to life imprisonment for his role in a 2004 assassination attempt on Hasina. On August 21, 2004, an Awami League rally where Hasina, the then opposition leader was speaking, was targeted. Hasina survived the attack but many people lost their lives.
Tarique has been living in London in exile since his conviction in said case.