(From AFP)
Pakistan on Wednesday recalled one of its diplomats from Dhaka after she was named as allegedly having financed a suspected extremist on trial for espionage, a Bangladesh official said.
“The female second secretary of the high commission was sent back to Islamabad this afternoon, two days after Dhaka informally asked for her departure,” said a senior official at the Bangladeshi foreign ministry.
The Pakistani High Commission did not immediately respond to a query about the whereabouts of the diplomat, who has previously been named in press reports as Farina Arshad.
The move comes after Idris Sheikh, a suspected member of the banned Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh, told a Dhaka court about his ties to Arshad, saying he received funds of 30,000 taka ($380), according to police detectives.
After Sheikh’s claims against the diplomat were widely reported in the Bangladeshi media, the Pakistani mission issued a statement dismissing what it called “utterly baseless media reports… maligning a female diplomat stationed in Dhaka”.
Bangladesh’s Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said that the government would take action against Arshad if the allegations against her were proved, local media said.