Bangladesh's diplomatic missions abroad have been adhering to a "zero-portrait" policy for the past few months without any official written instruction from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to remove the portrait of President Md Shahabuddin.
Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided this information on Sunday.
The decision not to display any portraits has been consistently maintained at various diplomatic offices and residences.
"I can tell you that there had been no written instructions from the headquarters. But you need to understand the signal," a senior diplomat stationed in a Bangladesh mission abroad told UNB on the condition of anonymity.
The diplomat said, "There are two aspects to this issue- after the changes on 5 August, the portrait of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was removed. Following that, several online meetings were held with mission heads under the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"When we saw that there were no portraits in the ministry, it sent a signal. Therefore, the president's portrait was also removed a few months ago," said the diplomat.
He further mentioned that he believes most missions have been following the same "zero portrait policy" for several months now.
A source revealed that the portraits of President Shahabuddin were removed on Saturday night from various diplomatic missions abroad.
Another source informed that the president's portrait from the Deputy High Commissioner's office in Kolkata was also removed. The portrait was also absent in the Bangladeshi mission in China, Russia and the USA.
Earlier, various media outlets reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had issued instructions for the removal of President Shahabuddin's portrait from all Bangladesh diplomatic missions, consulates, diplomats' offices, and residences abroad.
Several ambassadors and high commissioners in different regions were informed of this directive over the phone, the reports said.
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