Hangman's noose to Parliament: 2 with anti-India terror links win Bangladesh polls

New Delhi,UPDATED: Feb 13, 2026 21:12 IST

The 2026 Bangladesh election has seen the Bangladesh ist Party (BNP) trounce the Jamaat-e-Islami and secure a two-thirds majority. Among the winners are three individuals who faced the death penalty but will now enter Bangladesh's Parliament as MPs. All three had been freed by courts during the rule of the Muhammad Yunus-led interim set-up that was propped up after PM Sheikh Hasina was forced into exile. Two of the three faced anti-India terror cases.

While two of them, Lutfozzaman Babar and Abdus Salam Pintu, are from the BNP, ATM Azharul Islam is from the Jamaat. Prior to the July 2024 uprising that ousted Hasina, and her Awami League government, all three of them had been given the death sentence.

Lutfozzaman Babar once served as the State Minister of Home Affairs in PM Khaleda Zia's government from 2001 to 2006. That was the time when the BNP-Jamaat coalition was in power.

In the February 12 polls, Babar bagged the Netrokona-4 seat, bagging over 160,000 votes. A little more than a year ago, though, he was facing a very different future.

In 2014, Babar was handed the death sentence for his involvement in the 2004 Dhaka grenade attack which killed at least 23 people and injured at least 500. PM Hasina was the target of that attack. He was handed a second death sentence in 2018 for his involvement in the 2004 Chittagong arms smuggling case, which saw Bangladesh police and coast guard intercept 10 truckloads of arms destined for insurgents in India's Northeast.

After Hasina's ouster, however, the Bangladesh High Court acquitted Babar in the arms smuggling case on January 14, 2025, and he was released from Keraniganj Central Jail two days later.

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Babar's BNP colleague, Abdus Salam Pintu, also lived through a similar turn of events. He had previously served as a Cabinet Minister under Khaleda Zia from 2001 to 2006. In Thursday's Bangladesh national election, Pintu won the Tangail-2 seat with nearly 200,000 votes.

Like Babar, he was arrested and sentenced to death in 2016 for his involvement in the 2004 Dhaka grenade attack. Alongside this though, Pinto is also responsible for supporting the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), responsible for several terror attacks in India, such as the court complex bombings in Varanasi in 2006, the bombing of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah in 2007, and bomb blasts in Delhi in 2011.

And just like Babar, he was also acquitted of all charges by a Bangladesh court and released on December 24, 2025.

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The third person to go from the hangman to the Parliament is ATM Azharul Islam, member of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. In this year's polls, ATM bagged the Rangpur-2 seat after getting around 139,000 votes. He had previously contested from the same seat in 1998, 2001 and 2006, and had served as the Jamaat's secretary general until 2012.

In 2012, however, ATM found himself being arrested and charged with war crimes during the Bangladesh Liberation War by the country's Crimes Tribunal. He was accused of killing at least 1,256 people and for the rape of 13 women during the 1971 Liberation War, and was sentenced to death in 2014.

However, just like his BNP rivals, Babar and Pinto, the ouster of Sheikh Hasina in 2024 saw the winds of fortune blowing in his direction. On May 27, 2025, Bangladesh's Supreme Court saw it fit to acquit ATM of all charges.

The return to public life of these three individuals is a reflection of the dramatic shifts that have reshaped Bangladesh’s politics after the upheaval of 2024. Once having no future other than the hangman's noose, all three, with two linked to anti-India terror plots, are now preparing to take oath as elected MPs.

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