Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Monday said his ministry will honour the diplomats who had defected and declared their loyalty to Bangladesh during the War of Liberation in 1971.

“Their names will be written in golden letters at the foreign office,” Momen said at a function marking the Foreign Service Day at the Foreign Service Academy.

“We’ll honour them marking the 50 years of our great independence," he said while addressing the event virtually from Singapore.

He sought joint efforts to help achieve the dream of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and build ‘Sonar Bangla’ and a prosperous and stable economy by 2041. 

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam spoke as special guest at the commemorative event while Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen delivered welcome remarks.

Former foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali MP, former diplomats Mohiuddin Ahmed, Waliur Rahman and Bangladesh envoys abroad joined the event virtually.

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Highlighting the progress that Bangladesh made under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina over the last one decade, Momen said people from across the country are joining hands under her prudent leadership and working to build Sonar Bangla.

He said former foreign minister Mahmood Ali as the first diplomat in the USA expressed his allegiance to the Bangladesh government on April 26 in 1971 followed by former finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on 6th June and another 22 diplomats in Washington DC on August 1st.

"Their allegiance to the Bangladesh government put the then Nixon administration in an awkward position during our liberation war,"  Momen said.

He said all the diplomats had made a huge contribution to building world opinion in favour of the right cause of Bangladesh’s independence. 

The current government declared April 18 as "Foreign Service Day” in 2019 as the day is very significant for the independent and sovereign country of Bangladesh.

On this day in 1971, Bangladeshi diplomats and staff stationed in Calcutta defying the oppressive and occupation regime of Pakistan took over the Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner’s Office and hoisted the Bangladesh national flag atop and thus established the first Bangladesh Mission abroad.

On 17th April 1971, the Bangladesh government was officially established in MujibNager and on the following day, a group of Bangladeshi diplomats and officials led by Deputy High Commissioner Md. Hosen Ali and Third Secretary Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, declared their allegiance to the Bangladesh government and took possession of the premise of the Pakistani Deputy High Commission in Calcutta, India, and declared it ‘Bangladesh Diplomatic Mission’, which later became ‘Bangladesh Foreign Office’ in Kolkata. 

The other officers who also defected in Calcutta on 18th April 1971 were Third Secretary Kazi Nazrul Islam, and Assistant Press Attaché Maksud Ali.