BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman, accompanied by his wife Dr Zubaida Rahman and daughter Barrister Zaima Rahman, met Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on Thursday evening at the state guest house Jamuna in what was described as a non-political courtesy call.
Sources at the Office of the Chief Adviser said Tarique Rahman joined Prof Yunus for dinner. Also present were Dr Zubaida Rahman, Zaima Rahman, and Prof Yunus’s daughter Dina Yunus.
After staying for nearly one and a half hours, Tarique Rahman left Jamuna with his family at around 9pm.
Earlier, he left the BNP chairperson’s office in Gulshan at 6:42pm, briefly returned to his residence, and departed for Jamuna with his family at 6:52pm, arriving at the state guest house at around 7:30pm.
The meeting marked the first formal engagement between Prof Yunus and Tarique Rahman in Bangladesh since the latter’s return home after 17 years in exile in the United Kingdom. The two last met in person on June 13 last year in London during Prof Yunus’s visit to the UK, when Tarique was serving as the BNP’s acting chairman. That meeting was followed by a joint statement from representatives of both sides.
After returning to Bangladesh on December 25, Tarique Rahman spoke with Prof Yunus by phone at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport while waiting in the VIP lounge. They also briefly interacted on December 31 during the namaz-e-janaza of former prime minister Khaleda Zia at the Jatiya Sangsad complex, a day after her death.
Tarique Rahman was elected BNP chairman on January 9 through a unanimous decision of the party’s National Standing Committee. Thursday’s meeting was his first with the chief adviser in that capacity.
Earlier in the afternoon, Law Adviser Asif Nazrul told a briefing at the Foreign Service Academy that the meeting would be a courtesy call with no predetermined agenda, describing it as cordial. He said Tarique Rahman had expressed gratitude to the chief adviser for the government’s cooperation in arranging the burial of former Prime Minister and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and related state programs, adding that the meeting was arranged in that spirit.
