The United States offered to assist Bangladesh government in strengthening the country's law enforcing agencies, including Rab and police, under a joint action plan to control “terrorism and militancy”.

A four-member delegation of the US Justice Department gave the proposal at a meeting with Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Barrister Shafiq Ahmed at his office in the city yesterday, as the two sides discussed a wide range of issues.

Carr Trevillian, director of the US International Crime Investigation Training Programme, and State Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Advocate M Qamrul Islam were present.

The meeting over, the law minister told reporters: ”Discussions were held with the delegation about the work plan as to how the two countries can work together in tackling terrorism. They placed a number of proposals with us.”

He said they held preliminary discussions on a number of matters yesterday and more talks to take place in this regard in the future.

Replying to a question, Barrister Shafiq said they did not have any talks on signing agreement on terrorism and militancy.

”The main subject of the discussion was to tackle terrorism and militancy,” he said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already proposed to form a joint taskforce with other South Asian nations for a joint combat against terrorism and militancy.

Visiting at the same time, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard A Boucher hailed the proposal and extended his government's help.

The law minister noted that the government is agreeable to the proposed US support for strengthening the law-enforcing agencies, including the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and the police.