26 December 2015

Editorial: Pakistani Diplomat With Terror Links Recalled from Bangladesh

By Ankit Panda

This is the second such incident this year involving personnel at Pakistan’s high commission in Bangladesh.

In a diplomatic controversy, Pakistan has recalled a junior diplomat from its high commission in Dhaka after allegations by Bangladeshi authorities that the diplomat abetted and financed terrorist activities in Bangladesh. Farina Arshad, a relatively junior diplomat the Pakistani mission in Dhaka, left the country two days after the Bangladeshi government issued an informal request to Pakistan requesting her removal.

Arshad’s recall comes after the Pakistani high commission denied the claims against her. “All diplomatic norms and courtesies have been thrown out to the wind by publishing fabricated details of an imaginary ‘sinister plot’ to destabilise the host country,” the Pakistani high commission had said in a statement last week.

The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper, noted that authorities were able to make the request after an arrested Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militant, Idris Sheikh, confessed that Arshad had transported him in her car and provided him with 30,000 taka (roughly $380). The militant had additionally spoken with Arshad “several times,” according to the paper.

Read the full story at The Diplomat