Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen Saturday said the government will ask the US again to lift sanctions on seven current and former Rapid Action Battalion officials and the agency itself.The law enforcement unit was created based on the concepts suggested by the US and the UK and both countries provided logistics and equipment to Bangladesh to form it, the minister said at a programme on the Dhaka University campus.
“As a law enforcement unit, RAB is far more seasoned now. People in the country prefer them for their performance. The US had ulterior motives when it started pressuring the unit. Our goal is to resolve all these with the US by negotiation,” Momen said.US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu arrived in Dhaka on Saturday, the second high-profile visit by a US official in a week.
US National Security Council’s Senior Director for South Asia Rear Admiral Eileen Laubacher arrived in Bangladesh on Jan 8 for a four-day visit.Momen sidestepped a question when he was asked whether the RAB issue will be on the agenda during the official meeting with Lu, saying he doesn’t know yet. “Nonetheless, we’ll raise the matter.”
