By Malladi Rama Rao

There is a two-fold terrorism threat staring at Bangladesh. One is home grown. The other is trans-national. The domestic groups live on micro-finance and often take up job works the biggies want to outsource. By and large their sphere of activity is within the borders of the country, and it is not difficult to trace them what with their preference for unsophisticated and crude explosives. Big brothers of terror world active in Bangladesh are Al Haramain (Bangladesh Branch), Global Relief Foundation (GRF), Jamiat-ul- Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI). It is these groups that pose a real threat to Bangladesh. Because they are into money laundering and have made Dhaka the transit centre for their money, drug, and human trafficking operations

JMB is the Big Daddy of the terrorist networks operating in Bangladesh. Though its chief Moulana Saidur Rahman and explosive experts are arrested along with several senior front ranking leaders, JMB is not fully crippled; its financial muscle is unaffected. Monthly funds in-flow is estimated at over Bangladesh Taka 50 lakh (about 70 Taka = one US dollar) from local and foreign sources.

JMB members have publicly claimed to receive funding from Saudi Arabia. Around Taka Six lakh is being sent by around 3,000 JMB supporters in Australia, England, Italy, Canada, Malaysia and the Gulf countries, Saidur Rahman himself told his interrogators recently. Most of these overseas sympathizers belong to Ahle Hadith community.  One well-wisher, identified as Ahmed, donated around Taka 22 lakh in British pounds and American dollars between end 2008 and early 2009 but the police are unclear about the identity of the person as the JMB doesn’t use real names or identities.

Bangladesh is also the major nodal point for the fake currency racket targeting India. Nepal capital Kathmandu is another such centre. A person involved in fake Indian currency, Mamun, had been donating Tk 50,000 every month to JMB’s charity work, according to Saidur Rahman, who handled the finances of his outfit as well. It is unclear whether Mamun is continuing with his donation after JMB amir’s arrest.

While on the issue of fake Indian currency, it is interesting to note that it is a well organised. Bengali daily, Sangbad (Sept 23, 2010) quoted the police as saying that the Indian currency is printed in Pakistan and brought into Bangladesh by Pakistan intelligence agency, ISI. The transnational character of the operation became clear when the Detective Branch (DB) of police arrested the leader of the gang, Solaiman Majumder, (33), at Banasree in Dhaka’s Rampura on Tuesday, Sept 21, night. Acting on a tip-off, the police seized from him Indian rupees53, 500 – 37 notes of Rs1000 and 33 notes in Rs500 denomination. During preliminary interrogation, he confessed that he is a Pakistani national and that Pakistan regularly sends the Indian currency for circulation in local and Nepalese markets. A Pakistani airline is used to bring the fake currencies with the help of ISI, says the interrogation report.

This is not the first time for Solaiman Majumdar’s name to figure so prominently. Detained JMB Chief, Maulana Saidur Rahman, had also spoken of him as a regular source of monetary support. Solaiman was detained in January this year but got bail with in five weeks. Once released from jail, he fled to Pakistan.

Solaiman was in-charge of carrying fake Indian currency consignments from Pakistan to Bangladesh and coordinating with other agents to facilitate entry of these consignments into India through Nepal. During interrogation, he confessed that at the behest of ISI, he entrusted JMB and HUJI with smuggling of fake currency notes into India. Drugs and ‘hundi’ business are his other interests. And he was aligned with Maulana Tajuddin, who heads the Bangladesh chapter of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), and is presently hiding in Pakistan to evade arrest for his involvement in grenade attack on the August 2004 rally of Awami League rally. Tajuddin is brother of BNP leader, Abdus Salam Pintu.

Solaiman has eight accomplices. Of them, three, Faisal, Aman and Rafiq act as wholesalers of the forged Indian note market, Sangbad said quoting the police. Rafiq was arrested on September 16, 2010 and is presently in jail. Faisal and Aman were arrested but have been set free on bail. They are not alone in exploiting the loopholes in the Bangladeshi legal system. Leaders and patrons JMB, HuJI, Allahar Dal, and several other Islamist outfits have been taking advantage of the loopholes to get bail once arrested and then to slip-out of the country.

A senior official of the Special Branch, on condition of anonymity, told The Independent, (a Dhaka daily), “In course of our investigations, we have come to know about militants, after fleeing the country, are playing significant roles in regrouping Islamic militant outfits, following orders from top-ranking detained militants”. The official went on to say: “We also found significant evidence that leaders and activists of religious extremist groups, patronized by some foreign militants, are desperately trying to merge with other extremist groups, or create sub-groups under new names.” The daily also quoted him as saying “All this is possible for them, as law enforcers are yet to bring foreign militants under trial, and can, at most, keep them behind bars for a few months.”

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), on March 24, 2009, busted a militant training
centre run under the guise of a madrassa-cum-orphanage in remote Ram Keshab village of Borhanuddin Upazila in Bhola. The trail led to the door-step of Green Crescent, a UK charity, bearing registration no. 1099233. It is located at 62 Green Pastures, Stockport, as per the charity’s website. As many as nine firearms, 2,500 bullets, 3,000 grenade splinters, an explosives blaster, 200gm gunpowder, bullet-making components and equipment, two walkie-talkies, two bows, two remote-controlled devices, binoculars and a manual on operating firearms were seized from the centre.

A day later, on March 25, intelligence officials picked up their UK-based financier, Faisal Mostafa (40). Inquiries revealed that Faisal, who belongs to Char Umed village in Lalmohan Upazila, was sent to Dhaka jail in another case but was released on bail on February 14, 2010. Emerging from the jail, he had fled to the safety of United Kingdom.

The Detective Branch of police also speak of a similar case.

A British citizen of Bangladeshi origin, Golam Mostofa, 45, was picked up on April 15, 2010, from Biswanath Upazila in Sylhet. UK chief of HuJI, he is wanted by London police in a case related to financing militant groups.  A case under the money laundering Act has also been slapped on him.  This was not the first arrest of this Afghan war veteran though. He was arrested on December 2, 2007 from Dhaka’s Basundhara residential district with a Germany-made firearm, fake passport and some other contraband. Local court sentenced him to 17-years of rigorous imprisonment on the charge of possessing illegal firearms and ammunition. Mostofa managed to get ‘freedom on bail’ on August 23, 2010 and has fled to the UK.

Golam Mostofa, like Solaiman Majumdar, and Faisal Mostafa is a prized catch. Their escape by jumping the bail reflects poorly on the civil and judicial system in Bangladesh. Bail is a legal instrument designed to serve genuine needs. Unless the government tightens the provisions for bail, police morale will be hit even in the near term.

To go back to JMB financing, police investigations and confessions of the arrested leaders show, the outfit gets in cash around Taka 50 to 60 lakh during the holy month of Ramadan. In the Bangla month of Baishakh, about Taka 10 lakh flows into the kitty mainly from North Bengal in the form of Zakat and Ushr (a portion of harvested crop given as donation). The outfit is also into business enterprises like Taxi cabs, CNG-run three wheelers, vans and rickshaws (revenue Taka 50,000).

These are sources that are traced or acknowledged. What about hidden sources, which, by general consensus, are one too many.

Dhaka –based security and defence analyst Prof Imtiaz Ahmed (International Relations department, Dhaka University) opines that there is need for a broad based study on militancy and its funding sources. ‘Hitherto various militant outfits used different channels and money laundering to send money. But they are taking recourse to new systems….’, he says.

Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan, Director of RAB’s intelligence wing, shares the professor’s perception. According to him, militancy funding is really a concern since ‘We usually don’t know how militants are getting or spending the money’. So the issue is a PUC- paper under consideration of egg heads and police alike in Bangladesh.  

Money laundering is the route adopted by terrorists and Bangladesh politicians to fund their activities, going by the report of World’s lone anti-money laundering organisation.  ‘Bangladesh faces significant risk of money laundering and some risk of terrorism financing’, the Financial Action Task Force, (FATF), says. Prepared by the FATF’s Regional Review Group (RRG) the report is blunt and to the point. ‘The majority of illegal proceeds of crime in Bangladesh stem from trafficking of illicit drugs, human trafficking and corruption. Bangladesh is also transshipment point for illegal drugs bound for markets in Europe, the USA and Canada’.

Bangladesh’s vulnerability to terror finance comes mostly from foreign remittances sent in the name of charities, and also from the use of cash couriers, which is unique to the country. Most non-government organisations (NGOs) style themselves as non-profit organisations (NPO). The sector is home to registered societies, associations, clubs, companies limited by guarantee and foundation, and the like. Their number is put at 60,000 plus.

The Hasina government has no overall strategy for the sector. Supervision is quite inadequate. And, compliance with registration norms and financial reporting is very low. What is more, according to the FATF report, Bangladesh lacks the capacity to investigate and prosecute money laundering offences, and effectively freeze, seize or confiscate proceeds of crime. Well, this is cause for concern. It calls for calibrated action. Yes, without much delay.