Pakistan-Bangladesh defence ties are moving from strength to strength. Beginning November 8, Pakistan Navy chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf will arrive in Dhaka for a four-day visit, making him the senior-most head of an armed force to visit Bangladesh since August 8, 2024, when the Mohammad Yunus-led interim regime took charge.
On November 3, a three-member team of Bangladesh Army officers led by Adjutant General Mashrur Rahman, who holds the rank of major general, left for Rawalpindi as part of a meeting between staff officers of the two countries that have all but sealed defence ties at India’s discomfiture.
Earlier, Pakistan’s Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza, was in Dhaka and Sylhet between October 24 and 28.
As in the case of Gen Mirza, the Bangladesh defence establishment has plans to give a red carpet welcome to Adm Ashraf, who will be accompanied by his spouse Fouzia Naveed, and four Pakistan Navy officers, including Commodore Adnan Laghari, Lt Cdrs Pushteban Arbab and Usman Tariq Awan, and Captain Ejaz Ahmed.
The four-day treatment will involve serving “halal food” to the visitors who will be put up at Dhaka’s Radisson Blu Hotel. On November 9, the Pakistani admiral will be given a guard of honour at Bangladesh’s naval headquarters before a call on the host country’s Navy chief Admiral Mohammad Nazmul Hassan.
This will be followed by a meeting between Admiral Ashraf and Bangladesh Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus before the visiting team leaves for Chittagong, where he will spend the night at the Boat Club.
On November 10, the Bangladesh Navy will organise a call on by the Chattogram Naval Area Commander and the Area Superintendent Dockyard on board BNS Issa Khan, the country’s second-largest naval base. He will then travel back to Dhaka before sunset.
The next day, Adm Ashraf will have a call on meeting with Bangladesh Air Chief Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan, followed by a half-an-hour meeting with the Principal Staff Officer, Armed Forces Division, Lieutenant General S M Kamrul Hassan. Following lunch, Adm Ashraf will go golfing at the Kurmitola Golf Club and have dinner at Pakistan House.
The Pakistani visitors will not meet Bangladesh Army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman. The team will fly back (on Thai Airways flight number TG-322) to Islamabad on November 12 afternoon.
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While there are no details on what Adm Ashraf will do at Chittagong, it is likely that he may be taken to Pekua near Cox’s Bazar, where there is a submarine base, as well as Chittagong Port and other naval installations.
