The US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday arrived in Bangladesh in order to strengthen cooperation on the fight against terrorism after police announced in a statement that they had killed a group of fighters that were accused of carrying out a terrorist attack on restaurants in Dhaka in July.

Kerry met the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina Wazed, members of the opposition and civil society.

This is Kerry’s first visit to the country which has witnessed dozens of attacks against members of religious minorities, intellectuals and defenders of secularism. In addition to this, an attack during which 22 hostages, including 18 foreigners, were killed in a restaurant in Dhaka took place on the first of July.

Security issues and the fight against terrorism dominated the talks on the first day of Kerry’s visit to Dhaka. A US diplomat accompanying Kerry said that the United States and Bangladesh are linked by a “long-term partnership with programmes that have been developed over many years in the fields of counter-terrorism and security”. The official also said that dialogue with the police, the judiciary and the Bangladesh Army has intensified in recent months and that Washington plans to help Dhaka in the face of a wave of terrorist attacks.

The Bangladesh police announced on Saturday (two days before the arrival of John Kerry) that it had killed three terrorists near Dhaka. One of them is suspected to have been the mastermind of the attack on the restaurant in Dhaka.