The development comes at a time when India-Bangladesh relations are at a low, following the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina administration in early August.
New Delhi: Bangladesh’s interim government has reportedly issued orders this week recalling envoys to key capitals and world bodies, including the high commissioner to India. 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, including the high commissioner to India, were not political appointees, according to an HT report.
Besides the high commissioner to India Mustafizur Rahman, the others recalled are the permanent representative to the UN in New York and the envoys to Australia, Belgium, and Portugal, the report said. Some of the envoys who were recalled, including Rahman, were set to retire in the coming months.
The development comes at a time when India-Bangladesh relations are at a low, following the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina administration in early August in the face of protests led by student organizations. The caretaker administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus assumed office days after Hasina stepped down and fled to India.
The caretaker setup in Dhaka made persistent efforts to seek a meeting between Yunus and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York last month, the HT report said. However, the Indian side was unhappy with Yunus’ comments criticizing India and raising the possibility of seeking the extradition of Hasina, the people added.
In a separate development, India’s high commissioner to Bangladesh, Pranay Verma, met Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister Touhid Hossain in Dhaka and discussed bilateral ties. The issue of activating regular bilateral mechanisms figured in the meeting, according to a readout from the Bangladeshi side.