Bangladesh recalls 5 envoys, including high commissioner to India

By Seda Sevencan

ISTANBUL (AA) – Bangladesh’s interim government recalled five ambassadors from key capitals and world bodies this week, including its high commissioner to India, drawing criticism from New Delhi.

The Hindustan Times, citing people familiar with the matter, reported Wednesday that the orders issued by the administration division of Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry “have not gone down well within the country’s foreign service as several of the envoys who were recalled… were not political appointees.”

The sources said that in addition to Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to India, Mustafizur Rahman, Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York and its ambassadors to Australia, Belgium and Portugal were also recalled.

It also noted efforts to arrange a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Muhammad Yunus, chief advisor and head of Bangladesh's interim government, during the recent UN General Assembly in New York, highlighting the Indian side's unhappiness with Yunus’ comments criticizing New Delhi.

Bangladesh witnessed a mass student-led uprising in July and August, resulting in the end of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule when she fled the country on Aug. 5 to New Delhi after protesters stormed her official residence.

Yunus, Bangladesh’s only Nobel laureate, assumed leadership of the transitional government following Hasina’s departure.