Exiled in London, here's how this BNP leader hatched a plot with ISI to end Hasina's Bangladesh reign

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader and PM-in-waiting Tarique Rahman allegedly held meetings with Pakistani intelligence agency ISI in a Gulf nation where a plan was hatched to organise a campaign for ousting the Sheikh Hasina government, said people in the know.

Rahman allegedly travelled to the Middle Eastern country a few months ago for meeting the ISI officials where the plot was hatched for launching the campaign and creating conditions in Bangladesh for ousting Hasina, ET has reliably learnt.

ET had reported last week how the Pakistan Embassy in Dhaka allegedly played a role in instigating the move to hijack the student movement.


In the run up to Hasina’s ouster, Rahman became active on social media platform X, encouraging the movement to dislodge the elected government through street power and violence. Rahman has been in exile in London for over 15 years.

Meanwhile, the inclusion of a former deputy president of radical Hefazat-e-Islam in the interim government, has shocked progressive sections of Bangladeshi society. Hefazat-e-Islam was formed in 2010 in Chittagong where Jamaat-e-Islami has traditionally been strong.

Hefazat-e-Islam has been at loggerheads with the erstwhile Awami League government, and even organised protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Hefazat wants to alter names of institutions in Bangladesh and bring in radical laws.

Rahman, who was the de facto PM between 2001-06 when his mother was the official PM, has deep and old links with ISI and radicals. He is planning a quick comeback to Dhaka to lead BNP into polls. During 2001-06, he is alleged to have encouraged forces inimical to India’s interests.

Rahman had played a pivotal role in orchestrating the ‘India Out’ campaign on the lines of Maldives just after Hasina returned to power January elections in Bangladesh to create anti-India sentiment.

The movement, which was aimed at boycotting Indian goods, was also targeted at gaining ground against Hasina and appeasing hardliners like Jamaat-E-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam, people said.

In October 2018, Rahman was sentenced to life by a Bangladesh court for his role in a plot to assassinate Hasina in 2004. An attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004, targeted Hasina, the then Opposition leader when she was about to end a speech in front of thousands of supporters.

Hasina survived the attack with partial hearing loss, but her party's women front chief and former president Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman was killed in the blasts. Rahman was tried in absentia with the court declaring him a "fugitive".

In August 2023, Rahman was sentenced to nine years in jail and his wife to three years for accumulating wealth beyond their declared income. The court found them guilty of amassing illegal wealth and concealing information about the wealth, Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge ruled after the couple's trial in absentia.