Controversial Bangladeshi diplomat Kazi Anarkoly – who was arrested in Indonesia along with her Nigerian boyfriend in 2022 for keeping banned drug marijuana at home – has been appointed again.
Mere hours before the interim government assumed power, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hastily issued an office order last Thursday, appointing Anarkoly as the director general of the South American Wing.
The same day, several office orders were issued by this ministry, shuffling the offices and posting of several other people. Among them, Syed Masood Mahmood Khandkar was made additional secretary of the Consular and Welfare Wing.
Meanwhile, the hasty promotion of Anarkoly – who had severely tarnished Bangladesh's image in the diplomatic community – has elicited mixed reactions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Many raised questions regarding whose interests are involved in the hasty appointment of such a controversial officer.
However, the director general of the ministry’s Administration Wing claims that Anarkoly has been posted following all regulations, adding that she was reprimanded, and that sentence has now expired.
On July 5 of 2022, a team of Indonesia’s narcotic control authorities conducted a raid at the Jakarta residence of the then deputy chief of the Bangladesh mission in Indonesia, Kazi Anarkoly, over allegations of keeping marijuana at the apartment.
Anarkoly enjoyed diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention, but Indonesia's narcotic control authorities conducted the raid ignoring the treaty.
She was taken to the office of the narcotic control authorities after the raid, and then released at the custody of the Bangladesh embassy several hours later. Having been informed about the incident, the foreign ministry recalled her to home immediately.
Responding to a query, Foreign Secretary Masood Bin Momen told Amader Shomoy in a message, “As the allegations against Anarkoly were not proven, she was reprimanded and given the responsibility of the South American Wing.”
