Pakistan recalls diplomat from Dhaka over 'extremist link'

She was accused of financing a suspected extremist on trial for espionage

DHAKA:

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,” a senior official at Bangladesh’s foreign ministry told AFP.



The Pakistani High Commission did not immediately respond to an AFP 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.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2015.