Bangladesh official opens door to Awami League reconciliation with conditions

A senior Bangladesh government official on Tuesday said reconciliation with the now-disbanded Awami League was "not a bad idea", but added that any such process would have to begin with the party acknowledging its responsibility. The remarks marked the first conciliatory note from a leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government at a time of unease in the country’s political and economic spheres.

Zahed Ur Rahman, the prime minister’s information adviser, made the comments at a press conference and said reconciliation could be considered if the groundwork was created through talks with the Awami League’s top leadership. He said the basic conditions for such a move were still missing because the party leadership had shown no "remorse for its actions".

"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," Zahed told reporters. "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 said mediators should approach the Awami League first. "They should reach out to Awami League. The basic ground for initiating reconciliation needs to be established through discussions with the party's top leadership. If that is ensured, the matter can be discussed," Zahed said. He did not clarify whom he meant by "someone in the middle".

Zahed said the current obstacle was the absence of any sign of repentance from the Awami League leadership, referring to the ousted government’s violent crackdown during the 2024 mass protests. Those protests toppled Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government, after which she fled to India. An interim government led by Muhammad Yunus then took charge to govern the country for the next 18 months.

The interim administration and the current government have repeatedly demanded Hasina’s "extradition". In August, Hasina said she would return voluntarily to face the legal process, and she repeated that position in several later interactions with international and Indian media.

Since the 2024 political transition, several senior BNP leaders have described the Awami League as "politically irrelevant" and said it had no chance of returning to the political arena, while many of its senior leaders were either on the run in Bangladesh and abroad or in jail. At a June 23 press conference, Zahed had said the Awami League could return only if people’s memory was erased and "we would have to develop dementia and forget everything".

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has also said on several occasions that the Awami League had effectively ruled itself out of Bangladesh’s future democratic landscape. BNP acting secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, meanwhile, has repeatedly said the party had "dumped itself into the trash bin of history". Tuesday’s remarks from Zahed, however, signalled that reconciliation could be discussed if the Awami League leadership first accepted responsibility and the basic conditions for talks were created.