John Kerry visits Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in Dhanmondi

US Secretary of State John Kerry has reached the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi 32 to pay respects to Bangladesh’s founding father.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 29 August 2016, 05:45 AM
Updated : 29 August 2016, 08:12 AM

This is the house where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family members on the fateful night of Aug 15, 1975.

His daughters Sheikh Hasina, current prime minister, and Sheikh Rehana were saved because they were abroad at that time.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam and Radwan Mujib Siddiq, son of Rehana, received the Secretary of State at the museum when he reached there around 11:45am.

Kerry arrived on Monday morning on a short visit before leaving for New Delhi in the evening.

He will visit the Museum and then will go to the Prime Minister’s Office to meet Sheikh Hasina.

His visit is taking place amid US’s growing security concerns in Dhaka following the July 1 terrorist attack at the Holey Artisan Bakery and O' Kitchen restaurant in which 20 hostages, including 17 foreigners, were killed.

Washington expressed solidarity with Dhaka in the fight against terrorism and like many other countries offered counterterrorism assistance.

The government, however, maintained that it would take “need-based” support from all “friendly” countries to eliminate terrorism and extremism.

The US Department of State earlier said Kerry's visit was to highlight the “longstanding and broad based US-Bangladesh relationship”.