BNP's Tarique Rahman visits his father's grave

<p> Dhaka/New Delhi, Dec 26 (PTI): BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman on Friday visited the grave of his father and Bangladesh's former president Ziaur Rahman in Dhaka, a day after he returned home from self-exile in the UK.</p><p> Rahman reached Zia Udyan in a red-and-green bulletproof bus and paid floral tributes at the grave, offering 'dua' and 'munajat' for the eternal peace of his father’s soul, news portal bangla.daily-sun.com reported.</p><p> The 60-year-old Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader returned to the country on Thursday after over 17 years. He has been living in London since 2008.</p><p> This is the first time in almost 19 years that Rahman has paid tribute at his father's grave, news portal tbsnews.net reported.</p><p> The last time he did so was on September 1, 2006, when he was serving as BNP's Senior Joint Secretary General, marking the party's founding anniversary, it said.</p><p> BNP founder Ziaur Rahman was a Bangladeshi military officer who served as the sixth president of Bangladesh from 1977 until his assassination in 1981. He retired from the army in 1978 with the rank of lieutenant general.</p><p> Rahman stood before the grave with visible emotion and offered fateha. He was seen wiping tears with a handkerchief, The Daily Star newspaper reported.</p><p> He was accompanied by senior party leaders during the visit.</p><p> Though the distance between Rahman's Gulshan residence and Zia Udyan is only 8 km, it took him one hour and 51 minutes to reach the grave due to the massive presence of party leaders and workers, who lined both sides of the road, making the route narrow for his motorcade.</p><p> Throughout the journey, he waved to supporters from inside the bus.</p><p> While Rahman was paying respects, party leaders and activists gathered in front of the entrance and chanted slogans.</p><p> Meanwhile, security was tightened across Zia Udyan. Additional law enforcement personnel were deployed at Zia's grave and surrounding roads. Checkpoints were set up at entry points, and party volunteers helped maintain order.</p><p> Later in the day, Rahman paid tribute to fallen 1971 war heroes at the National Memorial in Savar.</p><p> He observed a one minute silence in honour of those killed during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence from Pakistan. PTI SCY GRS GRS GRS</p><p><i>(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)</i></p>

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