The US led the pack because the worldwide group moved swiftly to recognise a brand new political actuality in Bangladesh on Friday. Its congratulatory notice for Tarique Rahman, nevertheless, marked a whiplash-inducing reversal from the way in which Washington as soon as outlined the person poised to be Bangladesh’s subsequent prime minister.
Rahman was a “image of kleptocratic authorities and violent politics”, as per US diplomatic cables twenty years in the past. Essentially the most damning adjectives for Rahman by US diplomats got here in the course of the late 2000s.
In that interval when his mom Khaleda Zia served her third time period as PM, Tarique Rahman, additionally referred to as Tarique Zia, was seen by US diplomats because the architect of a “parallel administration” working out of Hawa Bhaban, the headquarters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion (BNP) in Dhaka.
Now chairperson of the BNP at 60, Rahman obtained congratulations from Donald Trump-led US on his “historic” win.
‘Darkish Prince’ of Hawa Bhaban
A leaked 2008-09 set of cables (diplomatic communications) from the US embassy in Dhaka, authored by then-ambassador James F Moriarty and later launched by WikiLeaks, didn’t mince phrases. It described Rahman as “phenomenally corrupt” and famous that he “conjures up few however unnerves many”.
The evaluation was much more brutal concerning Rahman’s standing within the nation, labelling him a “image of kleptocratic authorities” who was infamous for “flagrantly and continuously demanding bribes”.
Central to those US considerations was the “khamba” (electrical pole) controversy. The cables tracked allegations that Rahman and his associates used Hawa Bhaban to affect authorities contracts, particularly the procurement of hundreds of electrical poles, at inflated costs. These poles had been reportedly put in in rural areas however by no means linked to any energy grid.
For the US State Division of the period, Rahman represented the very “hereditary privilege” and systemic graft that the 2024 July protest towards Sheikh Hasina — his mom’s longtime rival now self-exiled in India — would finally rail towards.
Why US was cautious of Tarique Rahman/Zia
The US wariness was not merely about cash; it was about regional stability too on the time. In a confidential 2008 cable titled ‘Khaleda Zia Consolidates Management and BNP Adjusts to Life After Tarique Rahman’, the US ambassador explicitly said: “It’s in our curiosity that the latter [Tarique’s return to power] not occur.”
It argued that the finest probability for Bangladesh lay in seeing “alternate options develop throughout the BNP” and inside social gathering reform, citing the “large” stakes in a Muslim-majority nation with a historical past of “inside and transnational terrorism”.
Washington’s mistrust was additional solidified by Tarique Rahman’s conviction within the 2004 Dhaka grenade assault case, an alleged assassination try on then-opposition chief Sheikh Hasina that killed 24 individuals. Whereas Rahman at all times maintained these costs had been “politically motivated”, the US view on the time thought of these costs too whereas sketching his character.
“His theft of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in public cash has undermined political stability on this average, Muslim-majority nation and subverted US makes an attempt to foster a steady democratic authorities, a key goal on this strategically necessary area,” learn a cable from 2008.
Exile of ‘notoriously corrupt and violent’ Tarique Rahman
Khaleda Zia’s second premiership concluded with a political disaster and a navy takeover in 2007. In an anti-corruption crackdown during which Tarique Rahman alleged he was tortured in custody — resulting in spinal issues that he says left him with a near-permanent limp — he fled to London in 2008.
Native retailers noticed that as a “deal” among the many energy brokers as Bangladesh continued with its ‘Battle of Begums’, Sheikh Hasina vs Khaleda Zia, on the floor. The navy remained a serious participant as elections befell underneath a caretaker authorities, and Hasina began her newest reign that ended with a well-liked revolt in 2024.
On Tarique Rahman’s launch on bail in 2008, a US cable stated, “Tarique Rahman, the notoriously corrupt and violent son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was launched from jail on September 3 after the Supreme Courtroom rejected the Authorities’s final minute authorized efforts to dam his bail. Tarique will stay within the hospital underneath police safety till plans for him to journey overseas for medical remedy are finalized. Begum Zia’s launch is anticipated to comply with inside days. Whereas Tarique’s launch had been anticipated, the way during which it befell highlights the Caretaker Authorities’s incapacity to stage handle occasions.”
The US cable added, “It additionally could go away open the door for a future position for Tarique.”
For 17 years, Tarique Rahman managed the BNP by way of video hyperlink from the leafy suburbs of Richmond in London, main what he described as a “quiet life” as a public relations advisor, as per his current profile by Time journal.
Throughout this era, the US relationship with Bangladesh moved in the direction of the regime of Sheikh Hasina, as did the remainder of the world. Her Awami League was usually seen as a extra steady, secular bulwark towards Islamist fundamentalism, however ended up changing into “iron-fisted”, as described by analysts.
Nonetheless, as Hasina’s rule turned repressive with hundreds of reported extrajudicial disappearances and alleged politicisation of the judiciary, the calculus started to shift.
The turning level got here in 2024, when the GenZ-led protests, fuelled by grievances over joblessness, toppled Hasina and compelled her to flee to India. This created a vacuum that neither the US nor regional powers like India might ignore. Indian PM Narendra Modi has additionally congratulated Tarique and referred to as for an “inclusive” Bangladesh.
The extra issues change…
A rehabilitation of Tarique Rahman’s picture was accelerated by the Bangladeshi authorized system’s post-Hasina pivot underneath an interim regime led by Nobel laureate economist Muhammad Yunus.
In late 2024 and early 2025, courts started overturning his convictions, together with the life sentence for the 2004 grenade assault, citing “procedural irregularities”. He was additionally acquitted in a number of money-laundering and bribery circumstances.
A gathering with Yunus, revered in Washington circles, offered a bridge in London in June 2025. BNP supporters referred to as it as “turning level” signalling that the worldwide group was able to take care of Rahman as a official political chief.
Tarique Rahman returned to Dhaka on December 25, 2025, when his mom was ailing. She died per week later.
Election had been held on February 12, with the BNP and its once-ally Jamaat-e-Islami going face to face whereas Hasina’s social gathering is banned.
After Tarique Rahman-led BNP’s victory within the February 13 cote depend, A person as soon as described as a flawed inheritor is now being embraced because the face of a democratic transition.
Rahman has been eager to acknowledge his previous, and promised a “technocratic method” to governance.
In a current interview, he struck a humble tone concerning his popularity of the previous specifically: “If there are any errors which had been undesirable, we’re sorry for that.”
He stated he goals to do higher than his late mother and father, ex-PM Khaleda Zia and former navy boss and president Ziaur Rahman.
He additionally sought to attraction to American pragmatism: “Donald Trump will take care of the pursuits of his nation. I’ll take care of the pursuits of my nation. However we are able to additionally assist one another.”
He prompt a future the place Bangladesh may buy Boeing plane and US vitality infrastructure to stability the commerce deficit largely pushed by Dhaka’s textile exports.
A US-Bangladesh commerce settlement has made progress on that depend underneath Yunus already.
“The US appears ahead to working with you to grasp shared targets of prosperity and safety,” the US message to Tarique Ahmad stated on Friday, February 13, after his massive win.
