Dhaka: The United States has reiterated its support to Bangladeshi bloggers who are at ‘imminent danger’ by giving them shelter under ‘humanitarian parole’.

Mark C Toner, deputy spokesperson of US Department of State in Washington, DC, said: ‘…for some of these individuals who are under imminent danger, they can pursue under those circumstances a request from the Department of Homeland Security to consider something we call humanitarian parole.’

Humanitarian parole is an extraordinary measure sparingly used to bring an otherwise inadmissible alien into the United States for a temporary period of time due to a compelling emergency.

When a questioner asked how many people have applied for those kinds of visas, Toner referred the questioner to the Department of Homeland Security.

Responding to queries at the daily briefing on Monday, Toner said the US did condemn the ‘terrible attack’ on blogger and student activist Nazimuddin Samad.

‘It’s been a matter of concern. We’ve seen these kinds of actions before.’

Asked about his impression on security inside Bangladesh in the context of bloggers killings so far, he said it is obviously a matter of great concern.

‘We’ve offered assistance to the Bangladeshi Government, collaboration on the investigations, FBI assistance. We’ve seen reports in this most recent case that al-Qaida was behind it. These are horrific attacks,’ Toner said.

The US also urged the Bangladeshi authorities to take them very seriously and to fully investigate these attacks and to support the families of the victims.