Foreign funding traced to Bangladesh based radical groups

Bengaluru, Aug 25: A payment of 1.5 million pounds made by a Pakistani national into the bank account of the radical Shahid Hamza Brigade in Bangladesh is under the scrutiny of investigating agencies.

Bangladesh which has been battling with the problem of radical groups has found that there is considerable amount of foreign funding that has been reaching the accounts of the members of these groups.

Recently the Bangladesh police arrested three lawyers of the Supreme Court and also the daughter of Bangladesh Nationalist Party's leader on the suspicion that they were linked to the Shahid Hamza Brigade.

Foreign funding

There has been a mushrooming of several radical groups in Bangladesh in the recent past. Several moderates including bloggers have been murdered by these radical groups.

Today the investigators in Bangladesh have found that several of these groups have been getting foreign funding. The latest on the list of transactions was done by a Pakistan national based out of London.

It has been claimed that the Paksitani national had sent a sum of 1.5 million pounds to an account in Chittagong which in turn was moved into the funds of the radical group by the three lawyers.

The funds have been used for various purposes such as establishing Mosques, Madrasas and also NGOs which work against the interests of the government.

During the course of the investigation it had also been found that these NGOs which have been set up with the help of foreign funds work against the interest of the government.

However for public consumption these NGOs claim that they are working for the upliftment of the Rohingya Muslims, the investigators had also found.

The many forms of the Jamaat-e-Islami

The Shahid Hamza Brigade was relatively unknown until late. According to the intelligence bureau, the Brigade comprises members of the Islami Chhatra Shibir which incidentally is the students wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami or JeI.

The JeI has branched out into several outfits especially after the heat on it was increased by the government in Bangladesh.

The role of the JeI was also seen indirectly in the Burdwan blasts. Indian investigators had pointed out that the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen which was behind the incident was a wing of the JeI.

The JeI according to the Indian Intelligence is a political wing, but has several other branches which carry out radical activities on its behalf.

OneIndia News