Those who have been recalled to the headquarters include Ambassador to South Korea Humayun Kamal and High Commissioner to Malaysia Masud Aziz for "failure to discharge their responsibilities."

Even if they are not directly involved in any big irregularity, they will have to shoulder the blame of the lapses and failures of their respective missions, a foreign office source said yesterday.

Golam Hossain, ambassador to Libya, has also been recalled for unspecified reasons.

Meanwhile, Ashfaqur Rahman has been chosen as ambassador to China and Enamul Kabir will become ambassador to Bhutan. The post of ambassador to Bhutan has been lying vacant for quite some time.

Sharjil Hasan, ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mirza Shamsuz-zaman, ambassador to Abu Dhabi and Shahed Akhter, ambassador to Thailand, are due to retire early next year. The government, however, may consider their cases for extension, the

source indicated.

Former secretary Mofazzal Karim has already left for UK to replace Shaikh Razzak Ali as Bangladesh high commissioner to UK.

Ambassador Anwar Hossain will return home from Morocco as his extension will expire soon.

The post of ambassador to Kenya is lying vacant for some time.

Rafiq Ahmed, consul general to New York, will proceed to Canada to replace Mohsin Ali Khan who is due to retire.

Hemayet Uddin, ambassador to Thailand, will replace Tufail K. Haider as Bangladesh high commissioner to India. He had been in Dhaka recently for consultations.

The name of Shafi U Ahmed, director general (administration) is being discussed as next ambassador to Kuala Lumpur to replace Masud Aziz.

Masud Aziz has not only failed to keep the government informed about Malaysian interest to contest the post of general secretary of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) but also failed to perform during the OIC summit, the source said.

AFS Alimul Huq and AFS Anwarul Alam are expected to take over their ambassadorial assignments soon. Huq will leave for Germany while Alam will go to Spain as Bangladesh ambassadors.