Bangladesh taking stern steps to curb homegrown extremists: Ambassador to Washington

The Bangladesh ambassador in the US has said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken “tough measures” to weed out “homegrown” extremists who have recently killed innocent people including foreigners in Dhaka.

Mohammad Ziauddin made the remarks during a meeting with William Burns, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think tank of the US, on Wednesday.
 
The ambassador mentioned Hasina’s ‘zero tolerance’ stance against all forms of terrorism and violent extremism, the embassy said in a statement.
 
He briefed the Carnegie president on the measures taken by the government to curb the homegrown radical extremists.
 
Ziauddin spoke about the Bangladesh-US cooperation on intelligence sharing as well as long-term government strategy of eliminating terrorism from its roots in Bangladesh by means of modern madrasa education and women empowerment.
 
Ambassador Burns retired from the US Foreign Service in 2014 after a 33-year diplomatic career.
 
He said he is well informed about the issues of Bangladesh including the workplace safety and the recent terrorist incidents
 
He appreciated Bangladesh government’s initiatives to curb terrorism and violent extremism.
 
Burns thanked Ambassador Ziauddin for the briefing and said the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace recently opened an office in New Delhi which will cover all South Asian countries.
 
Bangladesh embassy’s Political Counsellor Toufique Hasan accompanied the ambassador during the meeting.