Dhaka hands protest note to Islamabad

Bangladesh today handed over a strongly worded note to Pakistan envoy in Dhaka a day after a staff member of Bangladesh High Commission in Islamabad went missing for seven hours.

Acting Foreign Secretary Rear Admiral (retd) Khurshed Alam summoned Pakistani envoy Shuja Alam at 1:00pm.
Secretary (bilateral) Mizanur Rahman was also present at the meeting held at Rahman’s office at the foreign ministry.
Shuja Alam left an hour later.

Jahangir Hossain, personal officer at the press wing of the Bangladesh High Commission, had been missing since around 6:00pm (Pakistan time) yesterday.

Bangladesh High Commissioner to Pakistan Suhrab Hossain confirmed to The Daily Star around 2:15am that Jahangir returned unharmed around 12:45am (Pakistan time).

Jahangir usually leaves the office around 6:00-6:30pm and picks his daughter from a coaching centre before going home, added Suhrab. “Last evening, he [Jahangir] left office around the same time, but did not pick his daughter from the coaching centre.”

The same day, Bangladesh police held a staff member of Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka for “suspicious movement” and later freed him.

Maruf Hossain Sarder, deputy commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said the staff member was carrying 3,500 Indian rupees, and police were interrogating him to know if he was carrying the currency legally.

He was taken to Gulshan Police Station. And after his identity was confirmed, he was handed over to the second secretary of the high commission, the DMP official said.