Bangladesh court imprisons terror financier Shahid Uddin Khan, wife

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Notorious terror financier, who has been funding various terrorist outfits including Islamic State (ISIS) has been handed 10-year rigorous imprisonment by a court in Dhaka, Bangladesh under Special Power Act. According to the verdict, terror financier and sacked army colonel Shahid Uddin Khan and his wife Farjana Anjum Khan will be serving rigorous imprisonment for possessing counterfeit currency bills worth BDT 300,000. The court also has slapped them with a fine of BDT 50,000 each, failure of which will lead to six more months addition imprisonment. A total of 10 prosecution witnesses testified before the court in the case.

According to media reports, Judge Syeda Hafsha Jhume of Dhaka Eight Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judges Court handed down the verdict.

Earlier in November 2020, Dhaka Special Tribuna-4 sentenced terror financier Shahid Uddin Khan, his wife Farjana Anjum Khan, their accomplices Syed Akidul Ali and Khoshed Alam Patwary to life term imprisonment in a case for possessing illegal weapons.

The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTC) of Bangladesh Police raided the jihadist couple’s Baridhara DOHS residence in Dhaka on January 15, 2019. During the raid, CTTC seized two pistols with 11 round of ammunition, a shotgun and several magazines along with large volume of IED making materials, counterfeit currency bills, jihadist propaganda materials and documents related to terror financing and money laundering. Later, several cases were filled with Cantonment Police Station against Shahid Uddin Khan, Farjana Anjum Khan and their accomplices.

After investigation, CTTC pressed charges against the accused on April 4, 2019.

Shahid Uddin Khan’s connection with Dawood Ibrahim

On June 14, 2019, the Business Standard in its report titledIntel agencies probe nexus between ex-Bangladeshi officer and Dawood’ said:

Indian intelligence agencies are probing a deep-rooted nexus involving underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and a London-based former Colonel of the Bangladesh army. The agencies suspect that the Bangladeshi army officer, allegedly involved in gun running, has links with Dawood Ibrahim’s underworld activities operating from India’s eastern borders.

What prompted the intelligence agencies to probe the nexus between Dawood and the Bangladeshi army officer was a report published in a leading British daily recently. On May 25, British newspaper The Sunday Times, in an exclusive report, revealed that a former Colonel Md Shahid Uddin Khan had been charged with funding terror groups, arms dealing and money laundering offences in Bangladesh. According to the British newspaper, the former Colonel has political links in Britain and had funded an MP.

Sources said that the former Bangladeshi Colonel migrated to London in 2009 under mysterious circumstances. He is said to have had business operations in Dubai as well as in Britain. As per the latest dossier on the Dawood Ibrahim gang, the D company is involved in smuggling Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) and contraband narcotics. The illegal activities are being operated from Nepal and Bangladesh.

Recently the role of a Pakistan Embassy official in Nepal had come to light in connection with a huge seizure of FICN at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. Dawood Ibrahim’s associate Yunus Ansari and three Pakistani nationals were arrested by the Nepal Police in the FICN racket busted on a tip-off by Indian agencies.

Sources said that as of now Indian intelligence agencies were probing the nexus between D company and the former Bangladeshi Colonel relating to fake currency and arms dealing. One of the houses of the former Bangladeshi Colonel in Dhaka was raided in January 2019 by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the Bangladesh police. Incriminating documents are said to have been found from ex-Colonel’s place in the raids. IANS made several attempts to approach Md Shahid Uddin in London, but could not make contact with him till the filing of the story.

On the other hand, British journalist Tom Harper, the Home Affairs correspondent for The Sunday Times, who exposed the role of the colonel in his exclusive story, has said in one of his tweets that former Colonel (Md Shahid Uddin) Khan had bought two houses with alleged laundered money, was charged after counter-terror police found arms, fake currency and Jehadist material from his home in Bangladesh. The British journalist, in another tweet, revealed that the Colonel denied allegations about terror funding and said that he was being framed by the Bangladeshi government.

But Shahid Uddin Khan’s claims are outrageously false. In fact, Blitz has exposed how this corrupt individual and members of his family had smuggled-out millions of dollars from Bangladesh.

Shahid Uddin Khan’s involvement in dealing into counterfeit currency

Shahid Uddin Khan started dealing in counterfeit Indian currency since 2008. He has been using cross-border smuggling racket in shipping consignments of counterfeit currency into India. According to information, in Pakistan, counterfeit Indian currency is printed in a secret printing press inside mountainous area Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Another source said Indian counterfeit currency is printed by the Pakistani security printing press under the direct supervision of its spy agency Inter Service Intelligence (ISI). Each time, they print at least 1-2 billion pieces of counterfeit bills of 500 and 1000 denomination. Once printed, these consignments are shipped into Nepal and Bangladesh in particular as well as Jammu and Kashmir area mostly through baggage of passengers, while in the recent years, Pakistani ISI carries the consignment into deep sea area within Bangladesh-India maritime area. Then these consignments are unloaded onto fishing boats, which carry it to the seashores.

On arrival of the consignments, these were handed over to representatives Md. Shahid Uddin Khan by a Bangladeshi named Humayun, while in some cases, few Pakistani nationals had also undertaken this handling over tasks.

On receipt of the consignments, Khan was sending it to his contacts within the cross-border smuggling racket. In most cases, these consignments were carried in Shahid Uddin Khan’s Toyota Prado SUV (black color). Each time he was sending counterfeit currency worth in between 100-300 million rupees.

It is also learnt that Shahid Uddin Khan was getting 35 percent commission on the gross amount of sale proceeds.

Shahid Uddin Khan’s involvement in dealing into illegal weapons

According to credible sources, Shahid Uddin Khan had joined hands with notorious terrorist Dawood Ibrahim’s infamous D-Company in 2009 and since then he also has been actively collaborating in transnational money laundering, arms, and narcotics trafficking. Khan and his wife Farjana Anjum and daughter Parisa Pinaz Khan are playing a key role in this illegal activity, while their eldest daughter Shehtaz Munasi Khan, who is a barrister in London has been looking after correspondences.

Parisa has been maintaining deeper relations with one of Dawood’s man named Faysal, who lives in the United Arab Emirates.

Shahid Uddin Khan’s daughter coordinate counterfeit currency dealings

Shahid Uddin Khan’s second daughter, Parisa Pinaz Khan visited India in 2018 to coordinate with the circulation of counterfeit Indian currency through their own network. During her visit, Parisa also met several members of West Bengal-based jihadist outfits including Salauddin, the fugitive kingpin of banned terror outfit Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB).

According to credible sources, Parisa Pinaz Khan also visited Russia where she had secret meetings with some dubious individuals, including St Petersburg-based mafias.

Interpol Red Notice on Shahid Uddin Khan and family

On June 20, 2019, Interpol has issued Red Notice on Md. Shahid Uddin Khan, Farjana Anjum, Shehtaz Munasi Khan, and Parisa Pinaz Khan.

Shahid Uddin Khan forms a franchise of ISIS in Britain

Sitting in the United Kingdom, Md. Shahid Uddin Khan has formed an organization named ‘Astha’ (Faith) with the agenda of unseating the democratically elected government in Bangladesh and enforce Sharia rule. With a similar agenda, he also has appointed representatives of Astha in the United States, Bangladesh, India, and Bahrain.

In the United States, Khan’s long-time accomplice M. Sajjad Hossain, Nahida Parvin Neeru, and Asif Hossain are coordinating activities of Astha, while in Bahrain, a woman named Zarah Shahid Khan has also been vigorously pushing forward activities of this organization. According to information, she had obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree from the North South University (NSU) in Bangladesh. A large number of students of NSU are accused of terror connections.

In her social media profile, Zarah Shahid Khan claims to be living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia while she also claims to be the Business Development Analyst (Intern) at Al Noor International School, Madinat Hamad, Ar Rifa’Wa Al Mintaqah Al Janubiah, Bahrain.

According to information, Al Noor International School is a private school in Bahrain on September 6, 1993, by private investors. The school teaches more than 5000 students in Bahrain. It started with a program of classes for primary levels in the district of Mahooz, prior to its relocation to the island of Sitra. Currently, it houses the educational needs of children from more than 43 countries and follows a curricular program made up of three types: British, Bahraini and Indian. It is one of the most intensive schools in Bahrain, with students’ academic performance in the top 10 percent of the country, and alumni all over the world.

Zarah Shahid Khan has been working as social media warrior for Md. Shahid Uddin Khan’s family members.

Background of ISIS funder Shahid Uddin Khan

On January 16, 2019 Colonel Shahid Uddin Khan (dismissed from Bangladesh Army on corruption cases), gave an interview to ION TV, Britain, where he falsely claimed himself to be a “very bright and honest officer”, who “in spite of being innocent was inappropriately dismissed” by Bangladesh Army Authority.

Later, investigative reporters of BLiTZ had already found the following information about this notorious terror financier:

During his service at the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), Battalion-6, in which he was tried under court martial from 28 November 2004 to10 February 2005 on various charges at the then BDR Headquarters at Pilkhana in Dhaka. The court brought total 28 charges against him. The investigation revealed that he bribed Taka 4000.00 to  Naik Md. Abul Kalam Azad of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), Battalion-6 for preparing drafts for his anonymous letters against Director General of BDR and other others and also  bribed Taka 6000.00 to lance Naik Abul Hosen for distributing the said anonymous letters to concerned places. Shahid Uddin Khan also threatened them with dismissal and jail if they disclosed his misdoings. He then destroyed his computer hard disc to wipe-off any evidence.

During his posting at Chapai Nawabgonj Shahid Uddin Khan developed unethical rapport with a local MP from Chapai Nawabgonj district. It has been known that he was posted to Bangladesh Riffles, Battalion-6 at the persuasion of the wife of the MP as Shahid Uddin Khan was actively collaborating him in smuggling activities.

However, Colonel Shahid had to cover up his illegal involvement by bribing local BNP leaders as well as by allowing them in continuing their smuggling activities.

Colonel (sacked) Shahid Uddin Khan became wealthy by collaborating with smugglers when he was sent to the Bangladesh Riffles (BDR) on deputation. Later in 2007, he sold a half-completed cold storage named Bondishahi Cold Storage in Comilla district at a price which was 70 times higher than existing market price. On receiving this fund, he immediately smuggled out a few million dollars to United Kingdom, where he along with his entire family took immigration under investor category. In the UK, Shahid has established a company named Zumana Investment & Properties Limited with his ill-gotten money. Although the total amount of investment was sent to UK through illegal channels, British authorities had no problem in accepting this dirty money.

On investigation, Bondishahi Cold Storage in Comilla district is found to be a half-done project.

Bank forgery by Shahid Uddin Khan

In May 2012, Colonel (sacked) Shahid Uddin Khan withdrew few million Taka from his wife’s Fixed Deposit (FDR) with the Eastern Bank Limited, Gulshan branch. Due to substantial amount deposit, Farjana Anjum is a “Premium Client” of the bank. Taking this advantage, Shahid Uddin Khan had asked the “Premium Client” department of the bank to visit his house along with required forms for getting signature of his wife Farjana Anjum to cash the FDR despite the fact, at that time Farjana already was in the UK. The then female receptionist in Shahid’s office had forged Farjana Anjum’s signature at the instruction of Shahid Uddin Khan. This particular case is a clear forgery, which is punishable under the existing law of Bangladesh.

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