Mentioning that the US allegations against the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) are baseless, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said about 600 people went reportedly missing in Bangladesh in the last 10 years, while over one lakh people are getting disappeared in America every year and more than 1,000 people are being killed by police there.
The foreign minister made the remarks while briefing media in Sylhet on Sunday on a letter he wrote to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, requesting to reconsider the sanctions the United States imposed on RAB officials.
Momen further said, none raises question against the United States to this end and they term those “line of duty’.
If something small happens here, there are much talks, calling it ‘extra judicial killing’, he said: “I don't think their (US) sanction was right. There is scope for reconsidering it. I wrote this in the letter”.
Momen said he had a telephonic conversation with Blinken where the US secretary of state voiced concern over the democracy and human rights in Bangladesh.
“In my letter, I wrote to him (Blinken) that the practice of democracy here is not of today. When America was not discovered, there was democracy in this region in the sixth centuries. Our democracy experience is very old. And the birth of our country was to establish democracy,” he said.
Momen said RAB has shown success in combating drug, terrorism and militancy in Bangladesh.
He said: “In my letter, I gave details of the initiatives and activities of the Bangladesh government in preventing terrorism and inter-state crimes.”
Earlier in the day, the foreign minister inaugurated the head office of NGO Zamzam in the city’s Kumar Para area.
