Commentary \nBNP\u2019s Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman returned to the country on December 25 after spending 17 years in exile. At a reception held in the capital\u2019s \u201c300 Feet\u201d area to mark his return, he said, \u201cI have a plan for the people of my country.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he wants to build a safer Bangladesh for everyone, encompassing people of the hills and the plains alike\u2014Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, and all others. This, he said, is his dream.<\/p>\n During the army-backed caretaker government of 2007\u201308, Tarique Rahman was arrested and subjected to torture. He was later forced into exile in the United Kingdom. At that time, public memory was still raw with the rampant corruption of his mother Khaleda Zia\u2019s outgoing government and the misdeeds of his own parallel power center, the so-called \u201cHawa Bhaban.\u201d As a result, the BNP suffered a crushing defeat in the national parliamentary election held in December 2008.<\/p>\n Since then, it remains unclear whether BNP\u2019s top leader Tarique Rahman has undergone a positive transformation. However, it has become clear to everyone over the past year and a half that the vast majority of his party\u2019s leaders and activists have shown no change whatsoever (in a positive sense). Even without being in power, they have begun a frenzy of extortion and land grabbing. According to the human rights organization Ain o Salish Kendra, 43 people were killed in internal conflicts within the party in just the first six months of this year (https:\/\/www.dw.com\/bn). How Mr. Tarique plans to rescue the country from the brink of destruction with such reckless leaders and activists is a huge question.<\/p>\n It is true that even after Hasina\u2019s fall, during Dr. Yunus\u2019s so-called second phase of independence, the people of the hills and the plains\u2014especially the indigenous hill peoples\u2014are not doing well at all. Insecurity prevails everywhere, both in the hills and the plains. Lawlessness and mob violence have tarnished Yunus\u2019s image and have almost erased the distinction between his tenure and the Hasina era. For this reason, many may wish to feel reassured by Tarique Rahman\u2019s \u201cI have a plan\u201d speech promising a safer Bangladesh. But he has not clearly stated what that plan actually is.<\/p>\n We would like to place a few questions before him. Does his plan include the hills and the hill peoples? For the past 50 years, an undeclared military rule has been in effect in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. There is still a massive presence of military and paramilitary forces there. Due to daily military patrols and search operations, the indigenous hill people are forced to live in extreme insecurity. In the year and a half since Hasina\u2019s fall, three major communal riots have taken place in which seven indigenous hill people were killed, several injured, and hundreds of homes and shops reduced to ashes. In their own homeland, the hill peoples are today not only minorities; they are forced to live as second-class citizens. What does your \u201cplan\u201d include to free them from this condition? Do you have a plan to withdraw Operation Uttaran or end the undeclared military rule and establish genuine democratic governance in the hills?<\/p>\n Under the fascist misrule of Hasina, many indigenous hill people were forced into exile, just like you. Even after her fall, during Dr. Yunus\u2019s tenure, many were compelled to leave the country due to insecurity. They still have not been able to return home. What does your \u201cplan\u201d include to ensure their return to their homeland?<\/p>\n Even 28 years after the signing of the 1997 Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord, peace in the hills remains elusive. Do you have a plan to seek a political solution to the accumulated problems of several decades through new political dialogue to establish peace in the hills?<\/p>\n Above all, does your \u201cplan\u201d include issues such as the withdrawal of the army from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, rehabilitation of settlers in the plains, constitutional recognition of the indigenous hill peoples and their land rights, establishment of self-governance in the hills, an end to human rights violations, and justice for all killings?<\/p>\n At the reception meeting, Tarique Rahman said that, like American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s \u201cI Have a Dream,\u201d he has his own \u201cI Have a Plan.\u201d In his \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech delivered at the 1963 March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. said that even 100 years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, \u201cthe Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land.\u201d<\/p>\n The condition of the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts today cannot be said to be better than that of African Americans in the United States in 1963. Even 54 years after Bangladesh\u2019s independence, the hill peoples remain subjugated by every measure\u2014still bound in chains of injustice, discrimination, oppression, and repression. Will Tarique Rahman be able to free them from this state of captivity?<\/p>\n (28 December 2025)<\/p>\n ———-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Commentary BNP\u2019s Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman returned to the country on December 25 after spending 17 years in exile. At a reception held in the capital\u2019s \u201c300 Feet\u201d area to mark his return, he said, \u201cI have a plan for the people of my country.\u201d He said he wants to build a safer Bangladesh for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n