Nisha Biswal to arrive Dhaka on Sunday

In wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Bangladesh, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal, will pay a two-day official visit to Dhaka from Sunday.

During her visit to the capital city, Biswal will meet with Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and the Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali and other senior government officials, reported Daily Star.

"She may also call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina," diplomatic sources in Dhaka and Washington said.

Biswal will discuss the security situation in Bangladesh following the July 1 terror attack on a cafe, in which 20 hostages, mostly foreigners including a Bangladeshi-born US citizen was killed. US has offered to support the investigation into the Gulshan attack, also assuring security for US embassy officials and US facilities in Bangladesh.

Biswal last visited Dhaka on May 5 and 6, after the brutal murder of the US Agency for International Development's (USAID) staff and a gay rights activist, Xulhaz Mannan in Dhaka on April 25.

At least 20 hostages, including nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladeshi-American and two Bangladeshis along with two police officials were brutally killed during the siege on July 1, before the commandos launched their rescue operation, codenamed as 'Operation Thunderbolt', in the popular hangout, Holey Artisan Bakery and O'Kitchen Restaurant, in Dhaka's diplomatic zone the next morning.

--IANS

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