IGP Benazir Ahmed gets clearance to enter US

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Benazir Ahmed has been given conditional clearance to go to the United States for taking part in a conference of the heads of police departments of different countries.

The permission has been given on the condition of not participating in any kind of programme there during his tour, according to an official of the police headquarters.

Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Media and Public Relations Department, Farooq Hossain, confirmed the Business Insider Bangladesh this afternoon.

On December 10 last year, the United States imposed human rights-related sanctions on Benazir Ahmed, current Inspector General of the Bangladesh Police and former director general of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and six other individuals on the occasion of International Human Rights Day.

At that time, the US Department of State announced visa restrictions on Benazir Ahmed, and former commander of RAB-7, Miftah Uddin, which it says, due to their “involvement in gross violations of human rights” for extrajudicial killing of Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf pourashava councillor Ekramul Haque in May 2018, making them ineligible for entry into the US.