The interim government in Dhaka has recalled Bangladesh’s high commissioner in New Delhi, Mustafizur Rahman, along with the heads of missions in four other capitals.

The decision to recall the five envoys comes nearly two months after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled Bangladesh and took refuge in India in the wake of countrywide protests against her rule.

In an order dated October 1, the Bangladesh foreign office informed Rahman: “It has been decided that you will be transferred to the Head Office of the Foreign Ministry in Dhaka. Therefore, you are being requested to immediately relinquish your responsibilities at the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi and return to the Head Office in Dhaka.”

Similar directives were issued to the heads of Bangladesh’s diplomatic missions in Canberra, Brussels, Lisbon and the United Nations. All five were asked to return to Dhaka immediately.

The recall of the envoys marks a second phase of reshuffle in the diplomatic service alongside the domestic administration, an official said.

Soon after assuming charge in August, the interim government had asked Bangladesh’s top envoys in the US, Russia, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the Maldives to return.

The country’s high commissioner to the UK, Sadia Muna Tasneem, was asked to return earlier this week.

Several of these ambassadors were former diplomats, or retired or serving civil and military officials, appointed abroad by the deposed government. The foreign ministry has yet to make any fresh appointments in these countries.

Quoting foreign ministry officials, Reuters reported from Dhaka that all the recalled diplomats were set to go on post-retirement leave in December.

“The departure of Hasina’s government has triggered a broad administrative overhaul, with hundreds of senior officials being re-assigned or transferred, and the contracts of some key ones terminated, forcing many of them to resign or retire early,” the agency
report said.

Soon after assuming charge, the interim government made major changes to the domestic administration, scrapping the contractual appointments of several senior bureaucrats and sacking several police officers, including the chief of the main law enforcement agency.

They were accused of killing students and ordinary people during the anti-government protests in July and early August that witnessed hundreds of deaths.

Additional reporting by PTI