Rahman’s homecoming unfolds against rising unrest and shifting geopolitics.
The killing of Sharif Osman Hadi, a popular student leader known for his sharp criticism of India, has ignited violent protests. Hadi, 32, was shot by masked assailants in Dhaka earlier this month and later died in Singapore.
In the chaos that followed, mobs torched buildings — including two major newspapers perceived as pro-India — and even attacked the Indian High Commission in Chattogram, prompting visa services there to be suspended. Anti-India sentiment has been rising steadily since the uprising, compounded by the mob lynching of a Hindu garment worker accused of blasphemy on December 18.
Diplomatic tensions have only deepened. Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s ousted leader and once-dominant political force, now lives in India as a fugitive. She has been sentenced to death in absentia for orchestrating the deadly crackdown on last year’s protests, and New Delhi says it is considering Dhaka’s extradition request.
In this volatile moment, Rahman urged restraint, warning supporters to stay watchful “in the face of conspiracies”.
He anchored his message in the country’s turbulent past: “If the nation is to repay the… debt owed to its martyrs, it must build the country the people have long yearned for.”