The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Monday told visiting US State Department counsellor Thomas Shannon that there should be space for expressing views fearlessly and neutrally in Bangladesh.
BNP expressed its position to the US official when he met the party Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan residence in the capital.
The meeting started at 11:05am and lasted for 45 minutes. After the meeting, the US delegation left the place without talking to the waiting journalists.
"We have told US representatives that there should be space so that the people can express their views fearlessly and neutrally," BNP Standing Committee member Abdul Moyeen Khan, who was also present at the meeting, told newsmen after the meeting.
The former minister said they told the US delegation that the BNP, a liberal democratic party, believes in transfer of power through democratic means.
"No other means but a democratic system can be accepted in a world where human rights are the core values," he said.
Deputy US Assistant Secretary for South Asia Manpreet Singh Anand and US Ambassador in Dhaka Mercia Bernicat accompanied Shannon during his meeting with Khaleda Zia.
BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Standing Committee Member Moyeen Khan, Khaleda's Adviser Sabih Uddin Ahmed and Reaz Rahman were present at the meeting.
US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs-Designate Thomas Shannon arrived on Sunday with two senior diplomats and left for Sri Lanka on Monday afternoon.