High commissioner to India among five heads of missions being recalled to Dhaka

The interim government is bringing back to Dhaka the ambassadors and high commissioners of five foreign missions as part of a massive reshuffle in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In separate orders, the ministry asked the diplomats to return to Dhaka ‘without delay’ on Tuesday.

The heads of the missions who have been summoned to the headquarters are - Mustafizur Rahman, the high commissioner to Delhi; Muhammad Abdul Muhith, permanent representative to the United Nations; M Allama Siddiqui, the high commissioner to Australia; Mahbub Hassan Saleh, the ambassador to Belgium; and Rezina Ahmed, the ambassador to Portugal.

Three other ministry officials have also been transferred by separate orders.

The ministry’s Director Arifur Rahman has been made deputy high commissioner to Mumbai, Assistant High Commissioner to Manchester Kazi Ziaul Hasan has been appointed minister (local) in the Beijing embassy, and Mosammat Shahanara Monica, minister (local) in the permanent mission to the UN, New York, has been named deputy high commissioner to Kuala Lumpur.

The shakeup in the overseas missions comes as part of the changeover in the administration following the fall of the Awami League government in the student-led mass uprising.

Earlier on Sunday, High Commissioner Saida Muna Tasneem was ordered to return to Dhaka from London.

A foreign ministry source said the five ambassadors and high commissioners, who were ordered to return home on Tuesday, are all scheduled to go on post retirement leave, or PRL, in December.

They were due to return home in December anyway and so have been stunned and angered by the manner in which they were told to return home ‘without delay’ just two months before their retirements, the source said.