There was no lack of security US envoy: Home Minister

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Sunday said there had been no lack of security when US envoy Peter Haas visited Dhaka's Shaheenbagh area recently.

While talking to reporters at the Secretariat, he said police personnel rushed to the spot immediately.

Earlier, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen said the situation that US Ambassador Peter Haas faced could not be seen as a "security threat".

“There is no scope to see it as a security threat,” he told reporters at the Foreign Service Academy on Thursday evening, noting that the incident will have no impact on Dhaka-Washington relations.

Ambassador Haas visited the residence of Sanjida Islam, coordinator of Mayer Dak, an organisation of the relatives of the victims of enforced disappearance, at Shaheenbagh in the city on Wednesday morning.

Sanjida is the sister of BNP leader Sajedul Islam Sumon, who was reportedly disappeared in 2013.

When Haas was there, he was approached by members of another organisation - Mayer Kanna - a platform of family members of victims of earlier regimes, specifically the administration of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman.

The US ambassador met Foreign Minister Momen on an emergency basis at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs right after the incident.

The Foreign Secretary said Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen tried to explain the situation.

The US side said they have raised their “concerns” about this matter at the “highest levels” of the Bangladesh government.