4 contractually appointed ambassadors recalled to Dhaka
Four Bangladeshi ambassadors appointed on a contractual basis by the former interim government have been recalled to Dhaka and reassigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday, the ambassadors recalled are M Mahfuzul Haque from Portugal, Md Mainul Islam from Poland, M Mushfiqul Fazal Ansarey from Mexico, and Md Nazmul Islam from Maldives.
All four had been appointed under contractual arrangements by the previous interim government.
Mahfuzul Haque is a former government secretary. Mainul Islam previously served as Inspector General of Police. After the interim government assumed power, he was appointed IGP, but a few months later, on 20 November 2024, the government appointed Baharul Alam as the new IGP and subsequently posted Mainul Islam as ambassador.
Journalist Mushfiqul Fazal had long been based in the United States. During the tenure of the previous Awami League government, he frequently raised issues of alleged repression by the authorities at briefings of the United States Department of State and the spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General.
After the fall of the Awami League government following the mass uprising, he was appointed Bangladesh’s ambassador to Mexico.
Nazmul Islam is an academic who had been teaching at a university in Turkey before being appointed ambassador to the Maldives on a contractual basis by the interim government.
Alongside the four contract-appointed envoys, Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Abida Islam, has also been recalled and reassigned to the foreign ministry.
A career diplomat from the 15th batch of the foreign service, Abida Islam was appointed High Commissioner in London in January last year by the then interim government, replacing the widely discussed envoy Saida Muna Tasneem.
Her appointment had faced objections from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami from the outset.
The recalled ambassadors and the high commissioner have been instructed to join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka immediately.