The infamous Hawa Bhaban, the alternative powerhouse of the BNP-led administration in 2001-06, had an immense capacity to abuse power and enjoy impunity, as observed by BNP politicians, US government officials, international rights watchdogs, and the media at the time.
The subsequent government arrested many of the BNP top brass, including the prime minister's son Tarique Rahman and his cronies, took legal action against them and revealed an extensive level of bribery and extortion involving the party, government and the private sector.
Innumerable journalists were tormented, intimidated and assaulted by state agents and non-state actors on account of their coverage of these issues in the mainstream media.
Several high-ranking BNP members have recently told the media that acting party chairman Tarique Rahman and his "Hawa Bhaban" have been falsely accused of corruption, money laundering, election engineering and patronage of terrorist operations. They further claimed that Tarique was innocent of any corruption and that the rumours about Hawa Bhaban were made up by the media.
Part one: The Dark Prince and his ‘Hawa Bhaban'
According to the BNP, Hawa Bhaban was the political secretariat of Khaleda Zia, the then-prime minister and party chairperson, on Banani Road 13.
In 2005, for the fifth consecutive year, the non-governmental organization Transparency International named Bangladesh the world's most corrupt country. The “Corruption Database 2005” released in July 2006 drew a sharp reaction from the government, particularly the two ministries -- education and home ministries (police) -- that were ranked by the report to have the highest incidence of corruption. They used the media and even parliament to intimidate TIB.
During the tenure, the World Bank cancelled funding for three development projects, blaming government corruption for its decision.
CollectedPMO Principal Secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui referred to Tarique as "Wind Tunnel", a translation of the name of his Hawa Bhaban office. "Wind Tunnel has some psycho friends" that he listens to because of his lack of experience, Siddiqui said, describing Tarique as "unsophisticated and dangerous". He was talking to the then US ambassador on March 14, 2005.
On December 20, 2005, US Charge d' Affaires in Dhaka Judith A Chammas termed Tarique the "Dark Prince" to describe that he "has the Zia name, political cunning, and mountains of cash generated by his Hawa Bhaban's collection of tolls from businesses and BNP political aspirants.
"He inspires fear in many people, including BNP backbenchers, self-censoring journalists, business rivals, and parts of the PMO, who see him as ruthless, inexperienced and unworldly."
Election and cabinet
In mid-2005, the BNP, on the directives of Tarique, was “increasingly preoccupied with preparing for the election and, it seems, doing whatever it can get away with to win,” according to a cable sent to the State Department from Dhaka on June 20, 2005.
Tarique and his Hawa Bhaban office systematically monitored constituency politics and devised nationwide campaign strategies, a US official said in a cable dated December 4, 2006.
Earlier, he played a key role in forging the breakthrough alliance with the Jamaat-e-Islami and conducting a nationwide survey before the 2001 parliamentary election. And, before the January 22 election of 2007, Tarique had convinced Jatiya Party's Gen HM Ershad to join the BNP alliance in exchange for the president's position, according to the US embassy officials.
Khaleda Zia hoped that her alliance would win 180-190 seats, compared to the 220 it held in the eighth parliament, as Gen Ershad had already promised to support her, she told the US ambassador to Dhaka, Patricia Butenis.
“[Khaleda] Zia insisted that, opposition assertions aside, her party has strong support from the Hindu community,” Butenis wrote to Washington on November 2, 2006. She said the BNP had submitted several names among the advisers named by the president.
After the 2001 polls, Tarique's growing strength within the party -- mainly among the new generation leaders -- created tensions between the BNP's old and new guard. Many leaders opposed seeing him as the party chief after Khaleda Zia, but were scared of expressing their views. His countrywide tour of 2004-05 instilled enthusiasm among the youths and helped him pick and back local winners who became part of his BNP clique.
"By selling state minister portfolios to a suddenly ballooning cabinet in 2002 onwards, Tarique produced a coterie of senior figures who owed him their positions while padding his already ample bank accounts," said US Ambassador Patricia Butenis.
Osman Farruk, the education minister, revealed to an embassy official how Tarique benefited from the portfolio trading.
He said: "The current cabinet initially was to have only 29 members, but after Tarique and some of his colleagues heard about it, they realized there would be little or no room for new ministers. So, Tarique insisted upon an expanded cabinet, including state or junior ministers."
Finally, the size of the Council of Ministers rose to 60 members, he told a US embassy official on April 23, 2006. It implies the sizeable sum of money Tarique and his close friends had amassed.
How he made money
Another US embassy cable said Tarique accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit wealth. Multiple extortion cases pending against him were founded on the testimony of numerous prominent business owners whom he had victimized and exploited.
Tarique helped create and maintain bribery, embezzlement and a culture of corruption, while "his theft of millions of dollars in public money has undermined political stability in this moderate, Muslim-majority nation."
According to former envoy James F Moriarty, Tarique's corrupt activities were not limited to the extortion of local companies like Monem Construction, which paid a bribe worth $450,000 to Tarique to secure contracts.
A witness who funnelled bribes from Siemens to Tarique and his brother Arafat Rahman Koko, the Dark Prince received a bribe of approximately 2% on all Siemens deals in Bangladesh.
Harbin Company, a Chinese construction company, paid $750,000 to Tarique to open an 80MW plant in Tongi. One of Tarique's cronies received the bribe and transported it to Singapore for deposit with Citibank, Moriarty said.
Former state minister for power Anwarul Kabir Chowdhury said he was against several energy deals with Harbin. He had to step down on October 3, 2006 after he uncovered significant corruption involving Tarique and then state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain, Chowdhury told a US embassy official the same week.
He said he had asked an intermediary to convey his allegations to the Prime Minister's Office. “Unfortunately, the PM's secretary, Khandaker Shahidul Islam, with whom the intermediary spoke, turned out to be part of the group backing Harbin.” He alerted Tarique Rahman to the allegations.
Chowdhury claimed Tarique Rahman then instigated the mob attacks on the power offices and facilities around Dhaka, protesting loadshedding to create a pretext for the prime minister to sack him.
The power plant was essentially useless, having tripped more than 75 times in one year since it was commissioned in October 2005.
To thwart the prosecution of a murder case against Shafiat Sobhan Sanvir, son of the Bashundura Group owner, Tarique accepted a Tk2.1 crore ($3.1 million) bribe. Tarique had solicited the payment, promising to clear Sanvir of all charges, Moriarty said, quoting ACC sources.
Tarique also succeeded in looting Tk2 crore ($300,000) from the Zia Orphanage Trust Fund account, of which he was a co-signer. He used the funds from the trust for a land purchase in his hometown Bogra and spent money on the 2006 election campaign, said the US envoy.
