Sagar Biswas :Bangladeshi diplomat Moushumi Rahman, who was posted at the Bangladesh High Commission in Islamabad, left the country on Thursday after being declared persona non grata by the Pakistani government.Rahman, who was a political counsellor and head of chancery in Islamabad left the country on Turkish Airlines flight TG711 via Istanbul within 48 hours of ultimatum given by Pakistan authority, according to information received in Dhaka last night. It is still not clear what charges have been brought officially against Rahman. Pakistan, however, has expelled a Bangladeshi diplomat for the first time.”It is [the expulsion] nothing but an act of retaliation. So far we think, Rahman was compelled to leave Islamabad as Dhaka recently expelled a Pakistani diplomat after being accused of spying,” a senior official of Ministry of Foreign Affairs [MoFA] told The New Nation yesterday requesting to remain anonymous. Quoting diplomatic sources, the Pakistani media reported that Moushumi Rahman indulged in “anti-state activities in Pakistan” and that concerned security agencies continued to monitor her.But refuting the allegation, State Minister for MoFA Shahriar Alam on Thursday said that Rahman would join the Bangladeshi Embassy in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. “Pakistan’s ‘request’ to withdraw Bangladesh’s diplomat without providing a reason was not ‘supportive’ for relations between the two countries. There was no explanation from Islamabad. They could not cite any valid reason when they asked the Bangladesh High Commission to send back the counsellor….Such acts never help the relationship,” the State Minister said with a tone of dissatisfaction. Alam said, “We [Bangladesh government] had been expecting the move of Pakistan. We knew that something was being cooked up in Islamabad. We were prepared and that helped us to take a quick decision giving her [Rahman] a fresh diplomatic assignment to Portugal upholding the country’s image.”When contacted, Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque told The New Nation last night, “The political counsellor and head of chancery in Islamabad Moushumi Rahman was given time to leave the country till Thursday.”Will she come to Dhaka or go to Lisbon directly, the Foreign Secretary said, “I can’t tell you anything about this right now.” Pakistan had asked Bangladesh on Wednesday to withdraw Rahman from its high commission in Islamabad within 48 hours in apparent retaliation for the expulsion of a Pakistani envoy Fareena Arshad.On December 23, Islamabad had recalled second secretary of Pakistan High Commission in Bangladesh – Fareena Arshad -at Dhaka’s request, after she was alleged to have financed a suspected extremist accused of spying for Pakistan.But Islamabad in a formal statement dismissed the charges as “baseless”, adding: “an incessant and orchestrated media campaign was launched against her [Fareen Arshad] on spurious charges”.Meanwhile, the bilateral relation between the two countries turned bitter in late November following the executions of two opposition leaders – Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat-e-Islami’s Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed — convicted of crimes against humanity during the 1971.Defying all diplomatic norms, at the time Pakistan’s foreign ministry expressed “deep concern and anguish” at the executions, describing the trials of those involved in alleged atrocities during the 1971 war as “flawed”.The two BNP-Jamaat leaders had been convicted of genocide and rape by the International Crimes Tribunal [ICT], which had been set up under a 1973 legislation that was amended in 2009 to resume the trials.Bangladesh took it seriously when Pakistan protested the move reminding the ‘tripartite agreement signed in 1974’ under which Dhaka had agreed not to proceed against those whom it had accused of ‘war crimes’ during the 1971 war.In response, Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Dhaka Shuja Alam was summoned by the then Foreign Secretary Mijanur Rahman to receive a protest over a statement issued by Pakistani Foreign Ministry.
