POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Apr 5, 2022 : Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has said it will take a long time for the US to lift sanctions on RAB and its former and current officials. “They have a process,” he told reporters after a meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Washington on Monday. We have to get it done.
The minister said there is a lot of process in almost everything in the United States.
The members concerned should be satisfied with the lifting of the ban. It will take time. “It’s not like a switch that can turn on and off in a day,” Momen said.
The Secretary of State said the decision-making process in the United States is quite complex. He said that for withdrawal of tariff, approval of 23 committees is required. Then the president can respond to that. Earlier, the president could not say anything. The executive is stuck here enough, so he can’t say it easily. You have to go through the process.
In his meeting with the US Secretary of State, the Secretary of State highlighted the role and progress of the RAB. At the end of the meeting, he said that RAB was created in our country at a time when terrorism and jihadi were rampant in our country.
The minister said 495 bombings took place in one day, grenade attacks on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s anti-terror rally, killing 24 people and injuring 360 others. There was a panic among the people all over the country, it was created at that time.
The foreign minister said the RAB may sometimes have ‘done too much or too little’. But there is an inbuilt system of accountability and many have been punished. There has even been a life execution. So there is accountability here.
The Minister said, “I have said that your Ambassador Moriarty (James F. Moriarty) said, RAB is the FBI of Bangladesh.” Banning the company would discourage my young people from working there. I would be very happy if you reconsider.
Asked what Foreign Minister Blinken had said in response, Foreign Minister Momen said he said it had a process and would be in that process. But we need accountability. We are very vocal about this.
“I said, we’re taking all sorts of remedial measures,” Momen said. He then said that no one had died in the last four months. And our track record at DSA is also good. No arrests have been made in the last four months. “It’s good,” he said.
