Akbaruddin grateful to alma mater Hyderabad Public School

Hyderabad, Aug 21 (IANS) India's permanent representative at the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin, who is currently in news for leading India's charge at the UN over Kashmir, is grateful to his alma mater, Hyderabad Public School.

"My alma mater - ever grateful to thee," the diplomat tweeted on Wednesday, tagging a tweet from Hyderabad Public School (HPS), Begumpet.

"We are proud to recognise the man of the moment, Syed Akbaruddin, who is the permanent representative of India at the United Nations, an alumnus of the HPS," the leading school had tweeted earlier.

Akbaruddin, a 1985-batch IFS officer, is earning appreciation for effectively leading India's charge at the United Nations, where Pakistan and China are trying to rake up the issue of abrogation of Article 370 that gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indian mission led by Akbaruddin has been maintaining that India's decision to scrap Article 370 and bifurcate it into two Union Territories is a "strictly internal matter".

Born in Hyderabad on April 27, 1960, Akbaruddin is an alumnus of HPS and Osmania University. He holds a Masters degree in politics and international relations.

He is son of Professor Syed Bashiruddin, who served as Indian ambassador to Qatar. Bashiruddin also headed the Department of Journalism and Communication at Osmania University and served as Vice Chancellor of Dr B.R. Ambedkar Open University.

Akbaruddin's mother Dr Zeba Bashiruddin was a Professor in the English Department at Sri Sathya Sai University.

The 59-year-old diplomat represented India's interests in various capacities and worked to promote friendly ties with various countries.

He served as First Secretary at the Indian Mission to the United Nations during 1995-98 and focused on UN Security Council Reform and Peace-Keeping. He also served as Counsellor at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

During 2000-2004, he was the Consul General of India at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Prior to that, he was First Secretary in Riyadh and Second Secretary/Third Secretary in Cairo, Egypt.

Akbaruddin was the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs during 2012-2015. He also acted as the Chief Coordinator of the India-Africa Forum Summit held in New Delhi in October 2015.

Interestingly, Akbaruddin's deputy at the Indian Mission to UN is also from Telangana. K. Nagaraju Naidu, who is deputy permanent representative at the UN, graduated from Nizam College in Hyderabad. He obtained Master's Degree in law and Diplomacy from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA.

An IFS officer of 1998 batch, Naidu served at the Indian embassy in China in various capacities.

B. Sandeep Kumar, first secretary at India's permanent mission in UN, also has his roots in Telangana. Hailing from a remote village in Peddapally district, Kumar is 2007 batch IFS officer.