35 Bangladeshis return from Italy, Greece and Cyprus on a special flight

The National Citizen Party (NCP) announced a restructured central leadership on Friday, keeping Nahid Islam as convener and Akhter Hossen as member secretary and moving the four leaders who fronted its election campaign into the party's second tier.

The new committee was announced in a notice signed by Sadia Farzana Dina, the party's office cell secretary, on Friday afternoon, about 21 months after the NCP was launched by organisers of the July 2024 uprising.

Nasiruddin Patwary, who was chief coordinator, and Hasnat Abdullah, who was chief organiser for the southern region, have been made senior joint conveners. Sarjis Alam, chief organiser for the northern region, and Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, the party's spokesperson, have been appointed senior joint member secretaries. The reshuffle reassigns the roles the four had held.

Samanta Sharmeen, who had been a senior joint convener, has been moved to joint convener. The Dhaka Tribune reported that her role in the party had become less active after the NCP joined the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance for the 12 February parliamentary election.

The Daily Times of Bangladesh reported that the new central convening committee has 195 members. It includes a 16-member political council, joint conveners, joint member secretaries, divisional organising secretaries, 19 assistant secretaries and 58 general members, according to the notice. Nahida Sarwar Niva, who like Sharmeen had remained inactive in party activities after the alliance, is listed as a joint member secretary.

The notice assigns portfolios covering international affairs, legal affairs, culture, labour, information technology, human rights, social welfare, science and technology, finance and planning, industry and commerce, sports, the July uprising, relief and disaster management, and youth and employment. Saifullah Haidar will handle northern Dhaka division, ASM Sujauddin southern Chattogram, Imran Imon Rajshahi and Navid Nowroz Shah northern Chattogram.

The NCP was formed on 28 February 2025, with a 151-member committee, by student leaders who had organised the protests that led to the fall of Sheikh Hasina's government in 2024. It secured registration with the Election Commission under the "shapla koli" symbol and said it would contest all 300 seats, before joining the Jamaat-led alliance and fielding candidates in 30.

It won six seats: Nahid Islam in Dhaka-11, Hasnat Abdullah in Cumilla-4, Abdullah Al-Amin in Narayanganj-4, Akhter Hossen in Rangpur-4, Atiqur Rahman Mujahid in Kurigram-2 and Abdul Hannan Masud in Noakhali-6. Nasiruddin Patwary and Sarjis Alam lost their races.

The alliance came at a cost. At least 15 senior and mid-level leaders, including former senior joint member secretary Tasnim Jara and former joint convener Khaled Saifullah, resigned in protest before the election, and six others withdrew their candidacies, The Daily Star reported in January. Several said they would return only if the party left the alliance. The leadership said at the time that its door remained open.

Party leaders have described the reorganisation as an attempt to strengthen coordination between the centre and the grassroots, prepare for local government elections due in February and get ready for the party's first national council. The NCP has not yet held that council, and the new committee was issued by notice rather than chosen at one, leaving open how much internal debate preceded the changes.

It is also unclear whether the leaders moved down or left out will challenge the new structure, whether the party's women's wing will be reshuffled next, and how the changes affect its relationship with its alliance partners and its role in opposition. Nahid Islam is the opposition chief whip in parliament.

The next tests are the local elections, the promised national council and whether the party can hold its alliance together while presenting a more organised front.

Bangladesh's ambassador to Japan, Md Daud Ali, will remain in Dhaka while Prime Minister Tarique Rahman visits Tokyo next week, a decision the foreign ministry has not explained publicly and which current and former diplomats describe as without recent precedent.

The prime minister is due in Japan from 26 to 29 October. He is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on 27 October, with trade, investment, infrastructure development and implementation of the Bangladesh-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement on the agenda.

In the ambassador's place, Md Nazrul Islam, secretary for bilateral affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has been sent to Tokyo with special responsibility for diplomatic coordination. He travelled this week and is expected to stay until the visit ends, according to officials quoted by The Daily Star and Prothom Alo.

The foreign ministry wrote to Daud Ali on 15 October asking him to return to Dhaka for discussions about the visit, and instructed him to be back within two days. He returned from Tokyo. Several senior ministry officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that although he had been called home for consultations, he was not involved in preparing for the trip.

The government has not given a public reason for keeping him away from the visit. A ministry official told the Dhaka Tribune that the ambassador was in Dhaka because of illness, and said whether he would join the prime minister in Japan would be known after his leave. That account has not been confirmed by the ambassador or by a minister, and it sits alongside briefing by other officials that he was called home for consultations and then left out of the preparations.

The arrangement is rare. Current and former diplomats told Prothom Alo that they could not recall a recent instance in which Bangladesh's ambassador was absent during a prime minister's visit to an important country, or in which a serving ambassador was brought back to Dhaka and given special duties for such a trip. The Daily Star reported that the decision was taken by the government but did not say who signed it or why.

Daud Ali is a 15th batch officer of the foreign affairs cadre. Before taking the Tokyo post in December 2024, he served as Bangladesh's ambassador to Romania. He is due to go on post-retirement leave on 7 December this year.

The prime minister's visit is a significant diplomatic and economic engagement. Japan is a major development partner, and the talks are expected to cover financing for infrastructure as well as trade and investment. An ambassador normally leads the embassy's preparations, handles protocol and helps arrange meetings with Japanese companies and officials.

Officials have not said whether the decision reflects dissatisfaction with Daud Ali's work, a routine staffing reassignment, or the illness cited by one ministry source. They have also not said whether he will take part in any part of the programme in Dhaka, or whether a replacement will be named before the visit.

The foreign ministry's public statements have focused on the visit itself. It has announced the dates and the agenda but has not addressed questions about the ambassador's absence.

Several questions therefore remain open. The first is the reason for the move: illness, a disciplinary matter, or a decision to put the visit in different hands. The second is whether the absence will affect the visit's preparation or its outcomes, particularly the business meetings that embassy staff usually organise. The third is who will lead the mission after 7 December, when Daud Ali's post-retirement leave begins.

What happens next will be visible quickly. The prime minister arrives in Tokyo on Monday, holds talks with Takaichi on Tuesday and is expected to meet Japanese business leaders during the four-day trip. The foreign ministry is likely to be judged on whether the visit produces the investment and financing agreements Dhaka is seeking, and on whether it explains, at some point, why its ambassador was kept at home.