Dhaka, July 24 - Criticised for his remarks made against Bangladeshi visa seekers, Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty has won approval from an unexpected quarter. State Minister for Foreign affairs Hasan Mahmud said the envoy has 'sympathy for Bangladeshis'.

'I feel he (Chakravarty) is a seasoned diplomat and a Bengali Indian. I do feel that he has sympathy for Bangladeshis,' Mahmud was quoted as saying by New Age newspaper Friday.

The remark came a day after the Bangladesh government 'disapproved' of Chakravarty's observations that 80 percent of Bangladeshis seeking visa for India were 'touts and brokers' and that 25,000 of the Bangladeshis going to India every year did not return home.

The Indian envoy spoke in response to criticism at a Bangladesh-India business meet. A delegate said that the serpentine queues of visa seekers outside the Indian High Commission could find a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The high commission has clarified that the envoy's remarks had been taken out of context and said the Indian mission in Dhaka and other cities have issued over half-a-million visas last year.