Financiers and patrons of militancy
During interrogation by the Task Force Intelligence (TFI) the JMB chief Abdur Rahman admitted that his militant outfit has been fuelled through funding both from home and abroad. According to a media report, the government has already listed 25 local JMB financiers, including some high profile politicians who have been put under surveillance. Some NGOs have also been allegedly supplying funds to militants. The home ministry on March 16 formed a three-member probe committee to investigate into source of funds of the JMB.
Police arrested a manager of Islami Bank on charge of cooperating with the militants for smooth monetary transaction. The Bangladesh Bank probe teams also found some lapses in banking norms and suspicious transactions with three branches of Islami Bank and served show-cause notice to the bank. The Islami Bank on March 16 suspended five officials including the managers of its three branches and also issued show-cause notices to 18 others for their suspected involvement in dubious transactions. The banks and NGOs running with religious ideology should also be brought under surveillance and audit mechanism be applied for detecting militancy finance.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Barrister Moudud Ahmed told the media on March 11 that a tough law with provision of death sentence for patrons of militants would be enacted soon. The draft of the Anti-terrorism Act, prepared in the style of the Anti-terrorism Act of the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) was placed to the cabinet on March 13. The cabinet decided that a committee would further review the draft of the proposed Act which would be enacted into a law for awarding of speedy punishment to the patrons and financiers of the militancy. All the cases relating to militancy and terrorism will be tried in the Special Tribunal if the Anti-terrorism Act is enacted into a law.
Terrorism could not make much headway without the help of money laundering. So the government is also going to enact tough laws to check money laundering and terrorist financing in the country. The cabinet at its weekly meeting held on December 19, with Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in the chair, discussed the draft of the proposed Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act 2005, aiming to stop sending illegal money to Bangladesh and prevent terrorist financing.
The draft Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act 2005 provides for a Financial Crime Investigation and Prosecution Office and allows the government to take foreign assistance to rout the crimes. The law drafted by the Bangladesh Bank defines terrorist acts and prescribes harsh punishments including life imprisonment and death sentence for them. The government has also decided to form a Financial Intelligence Unit to combat financial crimes and financing of terrorism.
Two experts of US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) are assisting Bangladesh in detecting and routing sources and channels of funds to the militants. They will illustrate and orient a selected group of police, judicial, customs and Bangladesh Bank officials as to how FinCEN operates to safeguard the US financial system from abuses and crimes like terror financing.
Bangladesh is likely to be able to strengthen monitoring of bank accounts and fund transactions to detect terrorism financing effectively from now on, as the country has since acceded to an international anti-terrorism convention. As well as the International Convention for Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, Bangladesh had earlier acceded to 11 other anti-terrorism conventions, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on December 9, 1999. The country is now well equipped to detect terrorist financing.
The capture of two JMB kingpins by Rab was only a partial success in dealing with the militancy. The other part of dealing with the militancy espousers, which is indispensable to root out terrorism, remains unattained. Nabbing and quizzing of the JMB leaders will bear no fruit, until their patrons and financiers are identified and brought to justice. But the nation is yet to see any initiative against them. The government would have no other option but to bring the financiers and patrons to book, ignoring their political fealty, if it is really keen on rooting out militancy. Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai should not be made scapegoat to conceal the patrons of militancy through bluffing people.
According to the media reports, the JMB mastermind Abdur Rahman has disclosed the names of two ministers, a state minister, a deputy minister, a mayor and an MP who have for long patronized the militant outfit. It is viewed with suspicion that TFI interrogators are now dictating Abdur Rahman to make confessions on their chosen line to save the government from being embarrassed. What is now of the essence is that the ongoing interrogation of the JMB leaders by the TFI must be thorough and transparent, and the findings should be made available to media for removing public misgiving.