Desk Report:
Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has said that the current government’s top priority is to improve the law and order situation in the country. For this, the government is working on short, medium and long-term plans to restore the lost image of various law enforcement agencies, including the police, and to increase their capacity. As part of this, France’s cooperation has been sought in police reform and capacity building.
He said these things when French Ambassador to Bangladesh Jean-Mare Séré-Charlet paid a courtesy call on the minister at his office at the Ministry of Home Affairs on Sunday (March 29, 2026). At the beginning of the meeting, the minister welcomed the ambassador and the ambassador congratulated the minister on assuming responsibility for the new portfolio.
During the meeting, various issues of mutual interest including law and order and security issues between the two countries, mob control, counter-terrorism, police reform and capacity building, RAB reform and restructuring, cooperation in the forensic sector, mutual legal assistance agreements and identification of new areas of cooperation were discussed.
The Home Minister said, we are working very seriously on police reform. However, this development is not possible overnight; we want to build a people-friendly police force through continuous or phased development. He said, due to the weakness of the interim government, they could not succeed in controlling the mob, but since the current elected government took office, there have been no mob incidents except for one or two isolated incidents. The government is not condoning any kind of mob or chaos. However, political parties will be able to hold meetings and democratically express their views without causing public suffering in a systematic manner.
Regarding the reform of RAB, the Minister said, there is a need for an elite force in any state structure. The force will be effectively kept in place through legal review by amending the name of RAB and utilizing the existing manpower and logistics.
The French ambassador said that France wants to elevate bilateral relations with Bangladesh to new heights. He expressed hope that the relations between the two countries will be further strengthened by identifying new areas of cooperation. He added that France has already taken steps to cooperate in increasing the capacity of the CID’s forensic lab.
During the meeting, the Home Minister sought France’s technical cooperation from the French ambassador to increase the capacity of the ‘Anti Riot Troop’ (riot prevention police). To this end, he directed the Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) of the police and the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the DMP to hold a meeting with the French Embassy and take effective steps.
The meeting was attended by Rebecca Khan, Joint Secretary of the Political-1 Branch of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Christel Fontaine, Deputy Homeland Security Attaché of the French Embassy, and Christian Bec, Political Counselor.
