Bangladesh has to do a lot more to curb terrorism

Under the prime ministership of Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has cracked down on the jehadi brand of terrorism and terror outfits that have been needling India for years. But Dhaka needs to do more to make the efforts more effective. The Hasina government needs to clamp down on sources of funding to the militants.

Militant organisations like Jama’tul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) or Harkat ul Jehad Islam (HUJI) have been banned but not liquidated. Another set of leaders has taken over. Training camps continue to impart ideological and arms training. Mere banning will not serve the purpose. A top  JMB commander, Mustafizur Rahman Shaheen, who was arrested recently, said during interrogation that JMB has not been liquidated after its ban, or with execution of its topmost leaders Abdur Rahman and his deputy Bangla Bhai. He said JMB cadres were operating under various banners to stage Islamic revolution.

The JMB, HUJI and Islamic networks were spawned by al Qaeda and Taliban jehadis. They were trained by Inter Services Intelligence and Lashkar e Toiba. None of the umbilical cords has been cut for good. In all 20 local and foreign NGOs including al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front finance radical Islamic groups JMB and HUJI. Huge funds pour in every month from Pakistani militant leaders, Sajedur Rahman and Hafiz Mohammad Ibrahim through the hawala channel to JMB chief Maulana Saidur Rahman. This was revealed by Maulana Saidur Rahman.

JMB chief Saidur Rahman said its activists learnt operational tactics of hitting multiple targets simultaneously from the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. From them they acquired techniques for manufacturing explosive devices and arms. He said the JMB follows al Qaeda’s ideology and works to expand and strengthen al Qaeda’s base in Bangladesh. Information about location of JMB suicide squad members was disclosed by JMB military wing chief Boma Mizan and Zaved Iqbal, both of whom were arrested ahead of Saidur Rahman’s arrest.

Saidur Rahman said bin Laden’s International Islamic Front (IIF) has been offering financial assistance to JMB and HUJI regularly as part of its worldwide endeavour to assist all pro-al Qaeda outfits. He admitted that huge funds were provided when the IIF was apprised of JMB’s plan to carry out synchronised bomb blasts across Bangladesh and deploy suicide bombers at strategic points in August 2005. Saidur Rahnan, who was former Habiganj district JEI Amir, said JMB was receiving funds regularly from 20 local and foreign organisations, including Saudi-based World Assembly of Muslim Youth, Rabeta-al-Alam-al-Islami, Kuwait’s Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, International Federation of Islamic Organisations, Islamic World Committee, Qatar’s Charitable Society and UK-based Muslim Aid. He said that in 2008 the two Pakistan militant leaders, Sajedur Rahman and Hafiz Mohammad Ibrahim, sent $42 million for JMB through hawala channel.

Dhaka police commissioner A.K.M. Shahidul Haque said militant organisations receive funds from expatriate Bangladeshi community in the US, Europe and West Asian countries. Money is mostly received through a hundi.

Intelligence agencies have found that Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) continues to work as a conduit of foreign funds. Funds are received from Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Libya-based NGOs to the JEI accounts in the Islamic Bank of Bangladesh and handed over to pro-al Qaeda outfits. This enables the party to launder money and incite militants. The party had planned violence during last elections and told cadres that some parliamentary seats including those of JEI Amir Matiur Rahman Nizami, Delwar Hossen Syeedi and Shahjahan Chowdhury must be won, even at the cost of assassination, if needed. The party had planned to resist Awami League as victory of AL would spell disaster and result in virtual decimation of JEI. This plan did not succeed as the army-backed interim dispensation that conducted the elections affirmed that no electoral malpractices or violence would be countenanced.

Internationally banned Islamic NGOs linked to terror funding were functioning in Bangladesh. The Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, al Harmain Islamic Foundation and Benevolence Society based in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Pakistan were directly linked with financing activities of the Islamic radical groups. Two RIHS officials, one from Sudan and the other from Yemen, were deported in 2006 for having channelised from Bangladesh over $700,000 to local and foreign terrorist organisations. RIHS was forced to close its operations in Bangladesh thereafter. Earlier, bank accounts of RIHS in Pakistan were sealed for its al Qaeda links. Another Islamic NGO Al Harmain Islamic Foundation had to wind up its operations in Bangladesh under US pressure as it was suspected to have funded the 9/11 al Qaeda attack on World Trade Centre towers.

Former finance minister Saifur Rahman has said that many bank accounts were being investigated for illegal transactions. Activities of the Islamic radicals will continue unabated until the sources of funds and patronage are identified and choked forever.

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