Named 'The Azure', today it is a luxury multi-storey tower in Dhaka's posh Banani, a glass-and-steel dominating the skyline. But nearly two decades ago, this very plot housed Hawa Bhaban. It was not a symbol of anything progressive, but that of shame, muscle power and terror. It was the highly controversial political office of the "Dark Prince" Tarique Rahman, the BNP chairperson. It functioned as an "alternative power centre" in Bangladesh between 2001 and 2006 (when BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami was in power), according to contemporaneous accounts by the US embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and media reports.
