Foreign minister says 1,000 people are gunned down by US police every year ‘in line of duty’.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said Tuesday that his country will discuss with the US administration the recently announced sanctions on seven, current and former, top officials of Bangladesh’s elite police force.
The US Department of the Treasury on Friday imposed human rights abuse-related sanctions on Inspector General of Bangladesh Police Benazir Ahmed and six other current and former officials of the elite force of police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), including its director general, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun.
“It is a matter of great sorrow that the US has imposed the sanctions against our agency that has been working with high reputation against terrorism and other criminal activities,” Momen said at a virtual press briefing.
Referring to the human rights situation in the US, he added: “We have gathered information that every year nearly 600,000 people in the US go missing, but they are taking action against us over a few hundred people who were unaccounted for in the last 10 years.”
Momen went on to say that on average more than 1,000 people are gunned down by US police every year.
“But no one raises any questions about them as it is considered that those killings occur in the line of duty of the US police force.”
He noted the US was an ally and said the hiccup in friendly relations will be solved through talks.
“We hope that the prevailing crisis will also be solved through friendly discussion,” Momen said.