Bangladesh appoints new envoys to UK, EU, Sri Lanka

The government has decided to appoint Ismat Jahan as the next High Commissioner of Bangladesh to the UK.

She will be replacing Md Abdul Hannan.

Jahan, a career diplomat, has long been serving as Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union (EU).

Ismat Jahan

Md Shahdat Hossain, currently serving as Bangladesh’s Ambassador in Italy, will be replacing her.

The government has also decided to appoint Riaz Hamidullah as the next High Commissioner to Sri Lanka as the current envoy, Tarik Ahsan, has earlier been transferred to Islamabad.

The foreign ministry made the announcements on Monday. However, it did not announce the new assignment of the current UK High Commissioner.

All these envoys are career diplomats.

Jahan belongs to the 1982 batch of BCS (Foreign Affairs) cadre, Hossain from the 1984 batch and Hamidullah, who is currently serving as a director general of the foreign ministry, belongs to the 15th batch.

Md Shahdat Hossain

In her long career, Jahan served as the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to UN in New York and also served as the Ambassador of Bangladesh to Netherlands.

Beside those assignments, she served in Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, Bangladesh Permanent Mission in Geneva and New York in different capacities.

An Economics graduate from the Dhaka University, She was also elected twice as the member of the CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) of the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner.

Hossain in his career also served as the Ambassador in Qatar and High Commissioner in Sri Lanka.

Riaz Hamidullah

He also served in Bangladesh Embassy in Cairo, the High Commissions in Islamabad and New Delhi and Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to UN in New York in various capacities.

He studied English literature at Rajshahi University.

Sri Lanka will be the first assignment as High Commissioner for Hamidullah. Earlier, he served at Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to UN in New York, Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi in different capacities.

He also worked in the SAARC Secretariat as a director. He completed his post-graduation in Economics.