The 2026 parliamentary election in Bangladesh has produced a striking political turnaround, with three candidates who were once sentenced to death emerging victorious and set to enter Parliament as elected lawmakers. The outcome comes after sweeping political changes that followed the 2024 uprising, which forced former prime minister Sheikh Hasina into exile and led to the installation of an interim administration headed by Muhammad Yunus.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secured a decisive two-thirds majority in the February 12 election, defeating rivals including Jamaat-e-Islami. Among the winning candidates are Lutfozzaman Babar and Abdus Salam Pintu of the BNP, along with Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam. All three had previously faced capital punishment but were later acquitted by courts during the interim political period.
Lutfozzaman Babar, a former state minister for home affairs in the BNP-Jamaat coalition government between 2001 and 2006, won the Netrokona-4 constituency with more than 160,000 votes. His political career had appeared finished after he received a death sentence in 2014 for involvement in the 2004 Dhaka grenade attack targeting Sheikh Hasina, which killed at least 23 people and injured hundreds. In 2018, he was handed another death sentence in connection with the Chittagong arms smuggling case, involving the seizure of large quantities of weapons allegedly intended for insurgent groups operating in India’s Northeast. Following the political transition in Bangladesh, however, the High Court acquitted him in the arms smuggling case in January 2025, leading to his release from prison shortly afterward.
Abdus Salam Pintu, another senior BNP figure and former cabinet minister during Khaleda Zia’s tenure, also secured electoral victory, winning the Tangail-2 seat with nearly 200,000 votes. He had been sentenced to death in 2016 for his role in the same 2004 Dhaka grenade attack. Authorities had additionally linked him to support networks associated with the Pakistan-based militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), which has been blamed for several terror incidents in India, including the Varanasi court blasts, the Ajmer Sharif Dargah bombing, and explosions in Delhi. A Bangladeshi court later overturned the charges, and he was released in December 2025.
The third winner, ATM Azharul Islam of Jamaat-e-Islami, captured the Rangpur-2 constituency with roughly 139,000 votes. Previously a senior party leader, he had been arrested in 2012 and tried by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal for alleged atrocities during the 1971 Liberation War, including mass killings and sexual violence. He was sentenced to death in 2014, but Bangladesh’s Supreme Court acquitted him in May 2025, clearing the way for his return to active politics.
The election of these figures underscores the dramatic political realignment that has taken place in Bangladesh since 2024. Individuals who once faced execution have now re-entered mainstream politics and are preparing to take oath as members of Parliament, reflecting how judicial reversals and regime change have reshaped the country’s political landscape.
