By IANS,
Dhaka : Bangladeshi diplomat Abul Ahsan, who was the first secretary general of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), is dead. He was 71.
Admitted to hospital some days back, he died following cardiac arrest early Sunday, New Age newspaper quoted his family members as saying.
Ahsan, who was also Bangladesh’s Foreign Secretary, was appointed SAARC’s top official on January 16, 1987 and continued through to Oct 15, 1989.
SAARC, the South Asian regional grouping that now has eight members — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Maldives and Sri Lanka — was established in Dhaka in 1985.