“Our society and religions do not allow any movement that promotes unnatural sex. Writing in favour of it is tantamount to criminal offence as per our law,” Kamal said after meeting with a US delegation led by Nisha Desai Biswal, the US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs.
His comments came more than a week after LGBT activists Xulhaz Mannan, who edited the country's first LGBT magazine Roopbaan, and Mahbub Tonoy were hacked to death in Dhaka's Kalabagan.
“We do not want any killing in the country and our government has adopted every kind of measure required to stop the killings,” the home minister told reporters at the secretariat yesterday.
Kamal also said the constitution prohibits writing anything that hurts religious sentiment, while one cannot carry out attacks on any belief.
Replying to a query, the minister said the government was alert about any possible link between local and global terrorist organisations, while the law enforcement agencies were active in thwarting any attempt to establish such a link.
“The government dislikes killings as well as anti-religious activities by some of the bloggers,” Kamal said.
He also reiterated that there was no organisational existence of the so-called Islamic State or al-Qaeda in Bangladesh.
However, US Assistant Secretary Biswal said the US had no reason to doubt that either IS or al-Qaeda were involved with the murder of Xulhaz, or that the terrorist outfits had tried to connect with local terrorist groups. “We are committed to cross-check it,” she said.
The US official added that her government would provide support to Bangladesh if international terrorists tried to establish a connection with local militants.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
