Turkey yesterday recalled its ambassador to Bangladesh for consultations after strongly protesting the execution in the country of a top Islamist leader, the state-run Anatolia news agency said.
Motiur Rahman Nizami, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at a Dhaka jail late Tuesday for the massacre of intellectuals during the 1971 independence war with Pakistan.
Turkey’s ambassador to Dhaka, Devrim Ozturk, is due to arrive back in Turkey on Thursday, the news agency added.
The Turkish foreign ministry had already strongly condemned the execution, saying it did not believe that “Nizami deserved such a punishment”.
It said that Turkey, which has abolished capital punishment, feared that the use of such methods risked creating “rancour and hatred between our Bangladeshi brothers”.
Since coming to power in 2002, Turkey’s ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) has sought to boost the country’s power in the Muslim world well outside its Ottoman sphere of influence.
Nizami, a 73-year-old former government minister, was the fifth and the most senior opposition figure executed since the secular government in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation set up a controversial war crimes tribunal in 2010.
Turkey had last year also furiously slammed a death sentence handed to Egypt’s deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi who was a close ally of Ankara until he was overthrown by the military in 2013.
Pakistan and Bangladesh summoned each other’s ambassadors yesterday to register “strong protest” in connection with a row over the execution of an Islamist leader in Bangladesh this week, both sides said in statements.
The two Muslim countries used to be two halves of the same one until Bangladesh broke away in a 1971 war of independence.
Bangladesh has in the past few years been prosecuting people accused of carrying out crimes in support of Pakistani forces during the war, and has executed five of them, the most recent one, Motiur Rehman Nizami, on Wednesday.
Pakistan said Nizami’s hanging was “unfortunate” and attempts by Bangladesh to malign Pakistan were “regrettable”, though it was not clear what Bangladeshi statement Pakistan was referring to.
Bangladesh summoned the Pakistani ambassador in Dhaka to register its “strong protest” over statements by Pakistan.
The Pakistan high commissioner to Bangladesh Shuja Alam was summoned and handed over a note verbale protesting the issuance of press release by the ministry of foreign affairs of Pakistan voicing concern over court’s dismissal of the review petition of war crimes convict Matiur Rahman Nizami.
In the note verbale, it was stated that by taking the side with those Bangladesh nationals who are convicted of crimes against humanity and genocide, Pakistan has once again acknowledged its direct involvement and complicity with the crimes of mass atrocities committed during Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971.
It is a matter of great regret that Pakistan continues to comment in the misguided defence of this convicted criminal, it said.
These uncalled for reactions amount to direct interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country, which is totally unacceptable, the note added.
It refuted Pakistan’s labelling of the proceedings of the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh as “controversial trials” and affirmed that Pakistan should in no way make biased, flawed and unfounded comments about the independent judiciary of a sovereign country.
Meanwhile, Pakistan foreign ministry on Wednesday issued a media release expressing its disappointment at the execution,
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan strongly condemned the execution. He Erdogan also lashed out at Europe for not speaking out against the execution.
 “Weren’t you against executions?” Erdogan said. “There was no noise (from the EU) because the person who was executed was a Muslim.”
Relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan have never recovered from the 1971 war when Bangladeshi nationalists, backed by India, broke away from what was then West Pakistan.
About 3mn people were killed in the war, Bangladesh says, and thousands of women were raped.
Some Bangladeshi factions including the Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist party, opposed the break and some if its members, including Nizami, have been prosecuted by a Bangladeshi war crimes tribunal set up in 2010.
“The government of Bangladesh deeply regrets that despite Bangladesh’s repeated overtures, the malicious campaign by Pakistan against the trials of the crimes against humanity and genocide in Bangladesh is continuing,” Bangladesh said in a statement.
International human rights groups say the tribunal’s procedures fall short of international standards but Bangladesh  rejects that and the trials are supported by many Bangladeshis.
l Indian external affairs secretary Subramanyam Jaishankar yesterday ruled out alliance with the United States to deal with militancy and terrorism in Bangladesh and said New Delhi will help Dhaka curb it bilaterally.
He came up with India’s stand when members of the civil society had a breakfast meeting with him in the Bangladesh capital.
Jaishankar admitted that he read in newspapers about a tripartite Bangladesh-India-US move to curb militancy.
Later, he said he carried to the next-door neighbour a message from his government expressing its strong support to Bangladesh’s endevours to fight terrorism and extremism.
“I told the (Bangladesh) foreign secretary that I am here also to convey the government of India’s strong support for the government of Bangladesh in the matter of terrorism and extremism,” Jaishankar told newsmen after bilateral talks with his counterpart Shahidul Haque at the state guest house Padma.
He called terrorism and militancy a regional issue that “directly concerns us as neighbours” and the two countries would work “closely and bilaterally” in combating the menace.
The joint briefing of the top bureaucrats of the two countries came after Jaishankar on Wednesday called on prime minister Sheikh Hasina, met foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali while he exchanged views with civil society figures at a breakfast meeting earlier yesterday.
Jaishankar said during the Indian prime minister’s June 2015 Dhaka visit, the two countries signed a number of agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs). The two foreign secretaries reviewed the progress of those agreements.
“We have come out with a very good progress report . . . we really moved forward in a number of areas,” he said adding that eight of 14 commitments reached during the summit were fulfilled by now.
The Indian secretary said recently the two premiers had a video conference when they inaugurated broadband connections from Bangladesh to India and power supply from India’s state-run Palatana plant to Bangladesh.  
He said India now looks to the possibility of supplying more power to its neighbour with engagement of the private sector while New Delhi is also reviewing possibilities to extend cooperation in energy sector as well in exporting diesel and exploring possibilities to export LPG.
“We also looked at line of credit that India offered to Bangladesh . . . I can say that we looked at the totality of our bilateral cooperation in all most every areas,” Jaishankar said pointing out that the last two months appeared “very significant” for the progress in bilateral ties.
Bangladesh’s foreign secretary told the briefing that they had discussed all aspects of bilateral relations during the talks.
“As you know, we are active, dynamic and close relationship with India,” he said.