News desk: For the first time, the United States (US) government has offered to prepare an “alert list” for militants with a view to identifying “most dangerous terrorists”.
For this, the US government wants to send a team to Dhaka to explain and to discuss the concept behind the “alert list” and the boarder impact it would have on Bangladesh’s current screening system. The team could offer advice on classification, categorisation, software requirement and inter-agency sharing process, sources in the foreign affairs ministry said.
The US embassy in Dhaka recently made the offer through a letter to the ministry, which forwarded it to the home affairs ministry to seek its opinion, the sources added.
When contacted, a senior official of the home ministry told The Independent that they are studying the US offer.
In the letter, the US government suggests that the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) consider identifying a project manager to develop and coordinate the “alert list” programme, both within the Bangladesh government and as a liaison with US officials.
“The US offers to work with this project manager to identify the roles of the Bangladesh Police Headquarters, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Counter-terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit, Special Branch’s immigration wing, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh (CAAB),” the letter says.
“The US would like to send experts to Bangladesh to discuss and identify roles of the above entities with the project manager and other key Bangladeshi authorities to work together to identify strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats that will need to be accounted for in developing the alert list. The United States recommends that the Government of Bangladesh should acquire a database, software and network platform for real-time screening of identities at points of entry, which can also act as the platform for the alert list,” the letter says.
It further says: “The US Department of State’s counter-terrorism bureau, with the US national counter-terrorism centre, will act on the matter with Bangladesh, working through the US embassy and providing expertise from other necessary US agencies.”
