For the past several months, pro-Islamist Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has been getting large amount of cash for continuing its ongoing activities against ruling Awami League, while BNP’s acting chairman and convicted fugitive Tarique Rahman has to send hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay lobbyists in the United States. While fund for BNP’s activities are entering Bangladesh from a number of countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Britain. From the UAE, Pakistani spy agency Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI)-linked company ARY Gold is sending funds through illegal private channels. It may be mentioned here that, ARY Gold was one of the main funders behind consignment of weapons and ammunitions.
The incident of the 10-Truck Arms and Ammunition Haul took place in Chattogram, Bangladesh, on the night of 1 April 2004, when police and Coast Guard interrupted the loading of ten trucks and seized extensive illegal arms and ammunition at a jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited (CUFL) on the Karnaphuli River. This is the largest arms smuggling incident in the history of Bangladesh.
Investigators believed that delivery was intended for the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), a militant group seeking the independence of Assam from India and considered responsible for causing thousands of deaths since 1979. Its military wing chief, Paresh Baruah, then living in Dhaka, was among the 50 persons ultimately charged in the case.
This incident occurred during the administration of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Four-Party alliance, which led the government from 2001 to late October 2006. Media analysts said that, given the scale of the operation and existing problems with corruption, high government officials and intelligence officers were believed to be involved in the smuggling plans. In 2004, arms smuggling charges were filed against a total of 45 individuals under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and arms charges against 43 persons under the Arms Act. Tarique Rahman was one of the main accused in these cases.
ULFA is designated as terrorist entity in India.
According to media reports, the police and Coast Guard interrupted the loading of materials in the smuggling incident. They seized ten truckloads of material: a total of 4,930 different types of sophisticated firearms; 27,020 grenades; 840 rocket launchers, 300 rockets, 2,000 grenade launching tubes; 6,392 magazines; and 1,140,520 bullets, which were being loaded on ten trucks from two-engine boats at the jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Factory (CUFL) at Chittagong harbor.
BNP’s dirty money handlers in the United Kingdom
According to a credible source, Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is sending money for “political activities” of his party to Bangladesh and the United States through at least three different individuals. One of them is an individual named Shahidur Rahman.
Shahidur Rahman is the owner of a restaurant named ‘Raj Spice’, which is located at 7 Halesowen Street, Blackheath, Rowley Regis, Sandwell, B65 0HG, UK. On its website, this restaurant describes itself stating: “The Raj Spice is a customary restaurant in Blackheath, surrounded by a superb undivided team of management. From the regulation to service all the staffs are very eco-friendly here so that you feel at your own home whenever you visit us accompanied by your family and friends”.
Halesowen and Rowley Regis is a constituency in the West Midlands represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by James Morris, a Conservative.
Shahidur Rahman has an undeclared partner named “Ahmed” from ‘Royal Suite’, a wedding hall in Birmingham who hosts lavish parties for BNP leaders from Bangladesh and London whenever they visit Birmingham.
But most importantly, Shahid Rahman owns huge properties in Bangladesh, while he is the owner of a shopping complex named ‘Thames Tower’, which is locally known as ‘Goala Bazar Tower’ on Dhaka-Sylhet Highway at Goala Bazar, Osmaninagar in Sylhet. This massive commercial complex is owned by Shahidur Rahman’s real estate company named ‘The Thames Properties Ltd’.
A source told this correspondent that Shahidur Rahman did not declare the amount he invested in constructing ‘Thames Tower’ with the UK authorities, although it is mandatory. Unless he has officially sent the required amount from the United Kingdom to Bangladesh and unless he has declared this investment, it would be tantamount to serious crime under ‘Money Laundering’ law.
The source said, in the United Kingdom every citizen is required to pay taxes on properties owned in foreign countries.
It is further learnt that Shahidur Rahman has dodged UK taxes on his properties in Bangladesh and kept the matter secret from the authorities concerned so that his wife could claim state benefits, which is also a serious crime under the UK laws.
Another source told this correspondent that Shahidur Rahman is a prime donor of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), while he handles illegal transfer of BNP’s cash to Bangladesh and the United States. In the UK, Shahidur Rahman is running illegal hawala business for years. Most of his clients for transferring cash through illegal channels are from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran and African countries.
It is also alleged that Shahidur Rahman has connections with illegal drug rackets run by Lebanese Hezbollah, notorious terror don Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company and Pakistani spy agency ISI, although this allegation could not be independently verified by this newspaper.
