Three ex-convicts, two anti-India accused win
All three faced death penalty before Yunus returned
Bangladesh’s ‘Lucky Trio’: From Death Row to Parliament, and India’s Uneasy Watch
Picture this: three men staring down the barrel of death sentences, their lives hanging by a thread amid Bangladesh’s turbulent politics. Suddenly, the winds shift. Sheikh Hasina, the iron-fisted former prime minister, flees to India in exile after mass protests topple her regime. Enter Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel-winning economist fresh from the US, who steps in as interim leader. With a stroke of judicial magic, he wipes their slates clean. Now, these “lucky” leaders—two from Tarique Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and one from Jamaat-e-Islami—are striding into Bangladesh’s parliament, fresh off election wins. It’s a plot twist straight out of a South Asian thriller, and New Delhi is watching with bated breath.
First up, Lutfozzaman Babar, a BNP veteran. Back in 2004, a grenade attack rocked an Awami League rally in Dhaka, targeting Hasina herself. She dodged death by inches, but 24 others didn’t make it. Babar was convicted, slapped with the death penalty. Fast-forward to December 2024: a high court acquits him, Tarique Rahman, and others. Cleared, Babar hits the campaign trail and crushes his rival by a whopping 1.6 lakh votes. It’s like he’d been reborn—voters in his constituency embraced the man they’d once condemned.
Then there’s Abdus Salam Pintu, Babar’s BNP comrade, who’s raising more eyebrows in India. Acquitted a year after Babar in the same grenade case, Pintu’s rap sheet doesn’t end there. He’s been linked to Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), the Pakistan-based terror outfit behind some of India’s darkest days: the 2006 Varanasi court blasts, the 2007 Ajmer Sharif Dargah bombing, and the 2011 Delhi High Court explosion. These weren’t just attacks; they shattered lives, left families in ruins, and sowed fear across borders. Pintu, undeterred, romps home with a two-lakh-vote margin. From New Delhi’s vantage, this feels like inviting the fox into the henhouse—pragmatic politics or a ticking time bomb?
Rounding out the trio is ATM Azharul Islam, the Jamaat-e-Islami stalwart. This guy’s been in the game since 1998, even helming the party’s secretary general role until 2012. But his baggage? It’s heavy. Accused of war crimes from the 1971 Liberation War—over 1,200 deaths laid at his feet—and starring in 13 rape cases. Death sentence in 2014. Yunus’s interim government? Poof—acquitted. Islam, who’d toiled in the shadows, now steps into parliament’s spotlight alongside BNP’s rising star, Tarique Rahman, post-oath.
It’s wild how fortunes flip in politics, isn’t it? These men, once symbols of Hasina’s vengeful justice system, are now democracy’s poster boys in the first national election since her fall. BNP triumphed, Jamaat didn’t, but Islam’s win shows the Islamists’ enduring pull. Bangladesh, that tiny nation squeezed between India and Myanmar, had been a powder keg—student-led uprising, economic woes, floods. Yunus stabilized it, but his era’s end disrupts the fragile calm India cherished.
From New Delhi’s strategic lens, this is a rude awakening. Officials whisper that Yunus’s interim setup was “deeply disruptive”—a polite way of saying it rattled Indo-Bangla ties. Hasina was India’s ally, a bulwark against radicalism. Now, with BNP at the helm, the mood’s shifting. Tarique Rahman, the London-exiled heir to BNP’s legacy, leads the charge. Indian diplomats are “cautiously optimistic.” Past BNP stints were rocky—think border flare-ups, water-sharing spats—but Rahman might play ball. Economic pressures bite hard: Bangladesh craves India’s trade, power grids, and investment. Regional stability? With Myanmar’s chaos spilling over and China’s shadow looming via Belt and Road, pragmatism could trump grudges.
Yet, the ‘lucky trio’ casts long shadows. Babar’s landslide feels like voter amnesia; Pintu’s terror ties evoke 26/11 nightmares; Islam’s war crimes reopen 1971 wounds that still fester in Indian-Bangla memory. Will Rahman rein them in, or will ideology clash with Delhi’s security red lines? As they swear in, Bangladesh’s Jatiya Sangsad becomes a hall of mirrors—reflecting a nation’s reinvention, but also old ghosts.
India’s playbook now? Quiet diplomacy, economic carrots, vigilant eyes on terror networks. Rahman knows the game: cozy up to Delhi for growth, sidestep Beijing’s full embrace. But with Pintu and Islam in the mix, optimism feels fragile. In South Asia’s chessboard, one wrong move, and pawns become queens—or kings fall.
This election isn’t just numbers; it’s human drama. Families who lost loved ones in ’04 grenades or ’71 atrocities deserve closure. Voters betting on change hope for jobs, not jihad. New Delhi, ever the neighbor with a big heart and sharper instincts, waits. Will Bangladesh’s new guard deliver stability, or stir the pot? Only time—and Tarique’s first call to Delhi—will tell.