In a brazen display of shameless hypocrisy and outright betrayal of Bangladesh’s liberation spirit, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman—the very man who now sits atop the nation’s power structure after a blood-soaked power grab—had the audacity to attend an Iftar hosted by Jamaat-e-Islami on Saturday evening.
Son of the country’s first military dictator and Jamaat patron General Ziaur Rahman, Premier Tarique Rahman didn’t just show up; he sat shoulder-to-shoulder with the party’s top brass, including the convicted war criminal ATM Azharul Islam, the Al-Badr commander from 1971 whose hands are stained with the blood of innocents during the genocide.
This isn’t mere political opportunism—it’s a disgusting normalisation of killers who aided Pakistan’s army in slaughtering Bengalis, raping women, and torching villages. ATM Azhar, once sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, now lounges at a nearby table like some honoured guest while the so-called “prime minister” preaches empty platitudes about changing the nation’s fate in Allah’s name. What fate? The one where war criminals walk free, liberation monuments are desecrated, and history is rewritten to whitewash Razakars?
Tarique’s speech at the event was a masterclass in cynical theatre. He droned on about gratitude to God for “restoring democracy” after years of sacrifice, torture, enforced disappearances, and killings—conveniently forgetting that his own alliance with Jamaat has long been soaked in those very crimes.
He invoked the people’s expectations, and the “journey of democracy” sparked by recent elections. Which elections? The farce of February 12, 2026, where Awami League and countless democratic forces were barred, seats were carved up in backroom deals among BNP, Jamaat, and their puppet allies, and mob terror paved the way for this illegitimate regime.
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The venue—the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Agargaon—became a grotesque reunion of old bedfellows. Tarique shared a table with Jamaat Ameer Shafiqur Rahman. At the same time, BNP stalwarts like Mirza Abbas and Moyeen Khan mingled with the likes of Jamaat’s Nayeb-e-Amir ATM Azhar, MP Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher, and even Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis chief Mamunul Haque. Other attendees included opportunists from various fringe groups, all united in their contempt for the 1971 spirit.
This iftar wasn’t about breaking bread in Ramadan’s spirit of compassion—it was a calculated photo-op to paper over cracks in the fragile coalition that seized power through arson, murder, and lynching in 2024.
Jamaat, the ideological heirs of Razakars and Al-Badr, now struts openly, placing wreaths at Shaheed Minar (while shouting “Nara-e-Takbir” instead of singing Ekushey songs) and demanding the release of their jailed killers. And Tarique, the architect of past BNP-Jamaat alliances that shielded war criminals, rewarded them with ministries, and unleashed JMB-Huji terror, now plays the gracious guest.
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Political analysts have long called BNP and Jamaat “two brothers from the same mother, Pakistan”—inseparable despite petty squabbles. Tarique’s presence confirms it: no distance, no shame, only shared complicity.
From Zia’s rehabilitation of fugitives like Ghulam Azam post-1975, to Khaleda Zia’s granting citizenship to war criminals, to Tarique’s 2001 coalition that empowered Nizami and Mujahid, to the post-2024 rampage where police were slaughtered, minorities targeted, and history vandalised—this is the ugly continuum, said senior journalist and Liberation War researcher Probir Kumar Sarker.
In attending this event, Tarique Rahman has spat on the graves of 1971 martyrs, mocked the sacrifices of millions, and signalled that war criminals are not just tolerated—they’re partners in power, he said. This is not leadership; it’s surrender to the forces that once sought to erase Bangladesh itself. The nation watches in revulsion as its prime minister dines with the ghosts of genocide. Shame on him, shame on this regime, and shame on anyone who still pretends this is democracy restored.
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