US had informed us earlier about the ban on Aziz Ahmed: Foreign minister

Foreign minister Hasan Mahmud has said that Washington had informed the Bangladesh embassy about the sanctions of former army chief General Aziz Ahmed (retd) before making the matter public. However, the sanctions against him are not under the US-declared visa policy. The ban has been imposed under a different act.

The foreign minister was speaking today, Tuesday afternoon, at the 'Meet the Reporters' event organised by Dhaka Reporters Unity.

The United States has imposed the ban on Aziz Ahmed based on allegations of corruption. In a statement released on Monday in the US (after midnight on Tuesday in Bangladesh), it was said that Aziz Ahmed and members of his family were rendered ineligible from entering the US.

In the statement read by US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, it was said that, "The US Department of State announced today the public designation of former General Aziz Ahmed, previously Chief of the Bangladesh Army Staff, due to his involvement in significant corruption. His actions have contributed to the undermining of Bangladesh’s democratic institutions and the public’s faith in public institutions and processes. These public designations are made under Section 7031(c) of the annual Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act."

This renders Aziz Ahmed and members of his family generally ineligible from entering Bangladesh, the statement said.