Govt to send probe team

The government has decided to send a high-powered team to Malaysia to probe the missing of 550 blank passports from Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur.
A highly placed source at the foreign ministry told The Daily Star that a team comprising senior officials of the Prime Minister's Office and the foreign and home ministries would go to Malaysia soon for an in-depth investigation into the scam.
The government has taken the matter very seriously as the incident, which occurred at a time when the Malaysian government was conducting a crackdown against illegal migrants, has immensely damaged the image of Bangladesh, the source said.
According to foreign ministry officials and Bangladesh mission in Malaysia, more than 500 blank passports have recently gone missing from the high commission.
They say a section of high commission officials and a few others might have been behind the incident. They also suspect the passports have already been sold.
The disappearance of the passports came to notice after the mission's newly appointed second secretary (political) and custodian of passports Suchona Rani Halder left Malaysia on a 10-day leave on January 5.
Suchona, former leader of Eden College unit of pro-Awami League Chhatra League, joined the mission on October 23, 2013. Before that, she had been appointed an assistant secretary at the foreign ministry's external affairs wing on a three-year contract on June 6, 2012.
She came to Dhaka with her family and is still staying here, citing medical reasons.
According to foreign ministry sources, Suchona was supposed to return to her work by January 15. However, despite repeated requests as well as direct instructions from the high commissioner over the phone, she is still staying in Dhaka.
The mission now considers her as Absent Without Leave (AWOL) since her absence from January 16 onward is unauthorised.
On January 24, the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur sent a letter, asking her to return to Kuala Lumpur immediately and appear before a probe committee, formed by the mission, within January 27. However, Suchona did not respond to it.