DHAKA, Oct 6: Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Information Adviser Zahed Ur Rahman has said that pursuing reconciliation with supporters and activists of the Awami League would not be a bad idea, but any such effort would require the party’s leadership to acknowledge its role in the violence surrounding the 2024 mass protests.
Speaking at a press conference in Dhaka on Tuesday, Zahed struck a relatively conciliatory note toward the party led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, saying dialogue could be considered if the necessary groundwork was created.
“Taking an initiative for reconciliation with the active activists and supporters of Awami League is not a bad idea. Rather, it would be good if such an initiative was taken,” he said.
Zahed also indicated that intermediaries could approach the Awami League to explore the possibility of opening discussions. According to him, the process would need to begin with engagement involving the party’s senior leadership.
“If someone in the middle wants reconciliation and thinks it is a good initiative, then I also think it is a good idea,” he said.
He added that the basic foundation for reconciliation would have to be established through talks with the party’s top leadership before the proposal could move forward. However, he did not identify who he was referring to as a possible mediator.
Despite expressing openness to dialogue, Zahed said the conditions for reconciliation were not yet in place. He pointed to what he described as the absence of remorse within the Awami League leadership over its actions during the 2024 protests.
The demonstrations eventually brought down Hasina’s government, forcing her to leave Bangladesh for India. An interim administration headed by Muhammad Yunus subsequently assumed responsibility for running the country for about 18 months.
Since the political changeover, both the interim administration and the subsequent government have repeatedly sought Hasina’s extradition. In August, she said she was willing to return to Bangladesh voluntarily to face legal proceedings and later repeated that position in interviews with international and Indian media.
Zahed’s latest remarks represent a notable shift in tone from the BNP-led government’s earlier public position on the Awami League. Since the 2024 transition, several senior BNP figures have described the party as politically irrelevant and argued that it has little prospect of returning to mainstream politics.
Many of the Awami League’s senior figures have remained outside Bangladesh or have been detained in the country, further weakening the party’s political presence.
Zahed himself had adopted a much harder position in June. During a June 23 press conference, he said the public would effectively have to forget the Awami League’s past actions for the party to make a political comeback, using dementia as a metaphor for such a possibility.
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has also repeatedly argued that the Awami League excluded itself from Bangladesh’s future democratic political landscape. BNP Acting Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has similarly maintained that the party had effectively consigned itself to the “trash bin of history.”
Against this backdrop, Zahed’s latest comments suggest that sections of the government may now be willing to consider a political reconciliation process, provided the Awami League leadership first accepts responsibility for the events that led to the 2024 upheaval.