Tarique Rahman

Tarique Rahman (born 20 November 1965), better known natively as Tarique Zia, is a Bangladeshi politician and businessman who has been the acting chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) since February 2018. He is the eldest son of former Bangladeshi president Ziaur Rahman and the first female prime minister of Bangladesh, Khaleda Zia. He is also the publisher of Daily Dinkal. Tarique is often described as the de facto leader of the opposition in Bangladesh.

In 2018, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for organising the 2004 Dhaka grenade attack by the then-Awami League government. His associates claim these were false allegations and a political ploy. He was later acquitted of the charge by the court in 2024 and his sentence canceled.

Tarique was involved in politics from a young age and rose to prominence in the BNP during his mother's tenure as prime minister in the early 2000s. In 2008, Tarique's mother, Khaleda Zia, lost the general election, and the BNP was replaced by the Awami League-led government. Tarique Zia went into self-imposed exile in London soon after, citing concerns for his safety and claiming that he was being persecuted by the authorities.