Killers getting away in Bangladesh: US envoy

US ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Bernicat said on Wednesday that killers in Bangladesh were getting away with murder.
The US diplomat made the comment while talking to reporters after meeting with home affairs minister Asaduzzaman Khan at the secretariat two days after the killing of former USAID official and LGBT magazine editor Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Khandaker Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy in Dhaka.
The minister, however, said that it was her emotional reaction and she had also praised the role of police in fighting terrorism and extremism in the country.  ‘She came here with a heavy heart.’
Bernicat said security situation was too intense here that any government or police alone could not handle the situation.
Asaduzzaman said that the government had sought US assistance in fighting terrorism, which he mentioned, was now a global phenomenon.
Referring to the recent spate of targeted killings in the country, he said such murders were not only taking place in Bangladesh, but also in all other countries across the world.
‘We will set up a cell for gathering and exchanging intelligence information [of such acts of terrorism and killings]. The cell will work round the clock,’ the minister said.
At present there was a focal point led by the additional secretary [political] at the home ministry to monitor such incidents, he added.
During the talks, the US diplomat expressed deep concern over the killing of Xulhaz, who had also worked as protocol officer for US ambassador in Dhaka, and his friend Mahbub in Dhaka, and also the murder of Rajshahi University professor Rezaul Karim Siddique in the country’s north-western city, according to the minister.
‘The US ambassador has welcomed the proposal and assured us of extending all cooperation so that we can work together against terrorism.  The diplomat said her government would help us with information available with them and also provide training to the police to face the menace,’ Asaduzzaman said.
Heads of law enforcement agencies, among others, were present at the meeting.
Bernicat handed over a list of recent murders to the minister for proper investigations, saying that the perpetrators should be brought to justice without delay, said officials, who attended the meeting.
Raising the issue of murder of a Bangladeshi couple in California on Sunday, the home minister expected that the US authorities would too investigate the incident properly and bring those behind the killing to justice.
More than 30 people including bloggers and writers were killed, allegedly by Islamist militant groups, in Bangladesh in the last 14 months.
Bernicat said her government was working hard on counter-terrorism cooperation and assured that they wanted to help Bangladesh in this regard.
Pointing to the killing of Xulhaz, she said no one deserved the death he faced and nobody would accept that one will be killed for his or her belief.
‘It doesn’t matter what you believe, it doesn’t matter what you write, it doesn’t matter who you love and it certainly doesn’t matter whether you pray to a God or not. You don’t deserve to be killed,’ the diplomat told reporters.
Asaduzzaman said there were significant progresses in the investigations into the recent killings that included murders of bloggers and two foreign nationals.
When his attention was drawn to the US diplomat’s claim over the operations of West Asia-based militant outfit Islamic State in Bangladesh, he said the ‘home-grown terrorists’ were behind these killings and none of them had developed international connections.
Xulhaz and Mahbub, who worked with a theatre group, were hacked to death inside Xulhaz’s Kalabagan apartment on Monday.
The killings triggered local and international condemnation. Militant outfit Ansar Al Islam, an affiliate of Al-Qaida in Indian subcontinent, claimed responsibility for the killings.
The incident took place just a couple of days after the killing of RU English professor Rezaul Karim in Rajshahi Saturday morning.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net