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Negotiations underway with US law firms over RAB ban, says Shahriar Alam RAB Sanctions
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Negotiations underway with US law firms over RAB ban, says Shahriar Alam

Bangladesh Live News | @banglalivenews | 27 Apr 2022, 11:42 pm

Dhaka, April 27: State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam said there was an opportunity to deal legally with the ban on seven former and current officers of the RAB and the force. He also said that discussions are underway with four law firms in the United States for this reason.

This is according to the minutes of the 27th meeting of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs held at the Parliament House on Wednesday (April 27). The meeting was chaired by Committee Chairman Muhammad Farooq Khan and was attended by members of the committee, including Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam and Md Habibe Millat.

Earlier, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said that a number of development-friendly lawmakers, including the United States and the European Union, had written to Bangladesh seeking information on disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and harassment of journalists under the Digital Security Act. But sad but true is the fact that it was not possible to reply to the letter in time due to lack of information from the Ministry of Home Affairs.

However, some information has been received from the Ministry of Home Affairs recently. In the current context, a committee headed by the Foreign Secretary has been set up to continuously monitor disappearances, extrajudicial killings, arrests of journalists under the Digital Security Act, and human rights violations. This will improve the situation a bit, the minister added.

He said Bangladesh missions abroad work as lobbyists. But lobbyist firms employed for money do not have much influence because the lawmakers of that country do not have a close relationship with the officials working in the embassy. On the other hand, there is a question of accountability in spending government money, so there are restrictions on hiring lobbyist firms abroad by spending huge sums of money.

However, in the current context, besides expatriate Bengalis living abroad, lobbyists are also being actively considered, he told the committee.