Bangladesh orders its high commissioner to Pakistan to come home

Bangladesh has recalled its High Commissioner in Islamabad Suhrab Hossain and asked him to return home as soon as possible.

Sources at the foreign ministry said the decision follows the recent diplomatic spat between the two countries over the war crimes trial in Bangladesh and Islamabad’s withdrawal of a ‘terror-linked’ diplomat from Dhaka.

 

Hossain, who has been on a contractual appointment, was in Dhaka at a time when Bangladesh’s acting High Commissioner to Pakistan, a junior diplomat, had to confront the Pakistani government on the war crimes-related issues in Islamabad.

 

Islamabad summoned the acting High Commissioner several times in the light of reports of a Pakistan diplomat’s links with militants in Dhaka.

 

Pakistan withdrew Fareena Arshad, the diplomat, but denied that she had links with any terrorist outfit in Bangladesh.

 

Asked about the reason behind Suhrab Hossain’s recall, Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque told bdnews24.com that his contract was about to expire.

 

“It’s normal,” he said, when asked whether the order was linked to any negligence of duties on the high commissioner’s part.

 

Hossain’s tenure expires in April next year.

 

“It takes time to complete the process,” Haque said, when asked about the order of recall being served before the expiry of the contract.

 

Hossain, a career diplomat, was in retirement when he was first appointed the country’s envoy to Pakistan on a contractual basis in 2010 for two years.

 

The contract was subsequently extended twice.

 

A freedom fighter, Hossain joined the Bangladesh Foreign Service in 1973.