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Foreign Secretary (FS) Hemayetuddin said the perpetrators of the August 17 nationwide simultaneous bombings did not have links with international terror outfits, reports BDNEWS.
The FS said the bombs were set by homegrown militants who "intended to give a message to the world outside that Bangladesh is slipping away from the moderate image that we have...We are confident that this did not have an international connection."
Hemayetuddin said he also sought to expand counter-terrorism programmes with the United States.
The FS is now visiting Washington to meet Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council officials.
Two people were killed and more than 300 were injured as nearly 500 bombs blasted simultaneously across the country on August 17.
The FS said they were mostly rudimentary bombs and the carnage would have been catastrophic had the attackers had foreign bombing expertise, according to a report received in Dhaka Thursday.
The government blamed the outlawed Islamic militant group Jamaatul Mujahideen for the bombings and arrested nearly 450 suspects, mostly members of the group.
He said Dhaka was confident of retaining a secular democracy in Bangladesh, where 85 per cent of the people are Muslims.
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