Tarique Rahman will return once election date announced: Abdul Awal Mintoo

BNP Vice Chairman and business leader Abdul Awal Mintoo has said that the party’s acting chairman, Tarique Rahman, will return to Bangladesh once the schedule for the national parliamentary election is announced.

He made the remarks on Friday evening while speaking to reporters after attending a scholarship award ceremony organized by 'Alokito Feni' at the Feni District Shilpakala Academy auditorium.

Mintoo said that the overall law and order situation in the country remains unstable. “Mob violence is still taking place, people are dying in lynchings, and the security situation has not returned to normal. At this moment, no one is safe in the country. However, once the election date is announced, Tarique Rahman will return,” he told journalists.

Responding to a question about possible concerns over the upcoming polls, the former FBCCI president noted, “When there is no democratic government in the country and questions arise over the legitimacy of the administration, doubts naturally remain about everything. Although the constitution has no provision for an interim government, they have still taken oath, and we accepted it. But when legitimacy is in question, uncertainty always lingers—especially about elections.”

On the issue of Chhatra Dal’s defeat in the DUCSU election and the boycott of the Jatiya Chhatra Samaj in Jatiya Chhatra Sangram Parishad polls, Mintoo said that student union elections at universities have no bearing on national polls. “If a free, fair, and credible election is held, whoever wins will form the government,” he added.

The event was presided over by educationist Taibul Haque. Among others present were former National Press Club president and Desh Rupantor editor Kamal Uddin Sabuj, Feni Deputy Commissioner Saiful Islam, Superintendent of Police Habibur Rahman, Local Government Department Deputy Director and Municipal Administrator Golam Md. Baten, BNP National Executive Committee member Mezbah Uddin Khan, and Feni BNP Joint Convener Gazi Habibullah Manik.