AFP to open office in Bangladesh to help bolster terrorist combat

Dhaka, Feb 18 (UNI) The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is set to open its office here on February 24 to help increase capacity development of Bangladesh police in dealing with multifaceted crimes including terrorist activities.

With this office in Dhaka, AFP will have 19 bureaus in Asia and the South Pacific, around a half of them have been opened since 2001.

The AFP is the first to post a Police Foreign Law Enforcement Officer in Bangladesh with the specific duties of both police liaison and law enforcement capacity development except for Australia.

''The presence of AFP office here reflects strength of relations between the Australian Federal Police and Bangladesh law enforcing agencies,'' Helen Ruben, an official at the Australian High Commission was quoted by independent news agency today.

She said AFP has been working here for last 12 months in the country and it is now formally opening its office on February 24.

Inspector General of Police Nur Mohammad told the agency that the AFP office in Bangladesh is perhaps the first in South Asia.

It will monitor terrorist activities and share information about terrorist movement Bangladesh police.

The Australian government has already provided capacity development assistance including sophisticated software to Bangladesh police department to help it track down terrorist activities.

Australia provided 50,000 dollars for IT equipment to Bangladesh Police and Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission as part of the complementary project to Bangladesh Police Reform Programme.

Official sources said the AFP coordinated training and capacity development opportunities to the Bangladesh Police from AFP Rangoon.

Since 2002 AFP Rangoon has provided a number of development and training opportunities to the Bangladesh police.

These included placements on a cyber crime courses in Vietnam, a chemical diversion conference in Australia and targeted law enforcement management programmes.

Since the deployment of the AFP to Bangladesh in January 2007, Australian law enforcement assistance has increased. These activities have sought to assist the Bangladesh police in a number of criminal justice areas of contemporary relevance and anticipated importance to Bangladesh.

The training provided to Bangladesh over the course of 2007 has focused on increasing professionalism in the Police force.

Bangladesh Police has been trained in acquiring skills in criminal intelligence development as well as specifically addressing crime types such as human trafficking and counter-terrorism.

The programmes are also aimed at fostering strategic relationships between the Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Zone Independent Commission against Corruption.

UNI XC RAR BD2053