BNP chief to return to B’desh to contest polls

Dhaka: The acting chairman and eldest son of former premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Monday announced that he would “return soon”, ending his 26 years in self-exile in London to contest the Feb general election. Tarique Rahman in an interview to BBC said, “I am running in the election (as well).” The then army-backed caretaker govt sent him to London in 2008 for medical treatment while legal procedures were under way against him on several criminal and graft cases. He preferred to stay there during the subsequent Awami League govt.