Damsana Ranadhiran
While majority of Britons as well as peace-loving people around the world are against granting permission to Islamic Stats (ISIS) brides like Shamima Begum in returning to their home countries, sitting in London, an ISIS funder and a sacked military officer from Bangladesh, who along with the members of his family are facing numerous charges of terror funding and money laundering, has been regularly providing monthly allowance to those ISIS brides as well as trying to provide legal support. While it is well known to all of us that the United Kingdom has always been at the forefront of fighting terrorism and radical Islamic jihad, most definitely the British policymakers and Britons now need to answer the question as to why they have been allowing the British soil to some individuals in continuing jihadist activities.
In Britain, until 2008, there had been at least 200 indigenous active terrorist cells being monitored by the Security Service MI5 and MI6 with 4,000 British Muslims considered as a threat to national security. But the bone-chilling information had appeared in the Daily Mail in March this year. The newspaper said, a secret government report has warned that more than 3,000 British children are being taken to Pakistan each year and enrolled in extremist summer schools. The Home Office study says courses at Koranic madrassas teach a ‘glorified version of jihad’. Officials fear some youngsters will be radicalized and return to the United Kingdom with a warped ideology and pose a terrorism risk.
According to information, ninety-eight percent of the Muslims living in United Kingdom do send their children to local madrassas, which are mostly run by the community councils and mosques. A survey showed, over fifty percent of the males and females of Bangladesh origin, who either live in Britain or had migrated from some of the European nations have already been radicalized. These Muslims though are using Britain as a great place of better earning, they consider non-Muslim Britons, particularly Jews and Christians as their enemies. Some of the Muslim men and women are even engaged into ‘love jihad’, who actually trap the other sex through romantic pretention with the goal of getting them converted into Islam.
Md. Shahid Uddin Khan (Army No: BA002428, Course: 8-BMA, Commission Date: 10-06-1983), who along with his wife Farjana Anjum and daughters had smuggled out millions of dollars from Bangladesh and invested in various business ventures in United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.
In 2009, he invested two million pounds in the United Kingdom in exchange of obtaining immigrant status under Visa Tier 1, vide VAF No. 511702. Later the family had laundered an unknown amount of money and brought that into the United Kingdom.
Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Bangladesh Police, based on secret information, raided House No. 184, Road No. 2, Baridhara DOHS in Dhaka, Bangladesh on January 17, 2019. This house is owned by Md. Shahid Uddin Khan and was allegedly used as a warehouse for arms, explosives and propaganda materials of Islamic State (ISIS). During the raid, large volume of weapons, detonator, counterfeit Bangladesh currency notes and jihadist materials of ISIS were recovered by the CTTC unit.
Following this recovery, three separate cases against ISIS-funder Md. Shahid Uddin Khan, his wife Farjana Anjum, daughters and other accomplices were lodged. The cases are: Cantonment PS, Case no 10, Section-6(2)/7/11/12 of Anti Terrorism Act 2009 (amendment 2013); Cantonment PS, Case no 11, Section-25-A, Special Power Act 1974; and Cantonment PS, Case no 12, Section-19-A of Arms Act 1878.
The man who funded Sri Lanka attacks:
Before four months, large sum of money went to Sri Lanka from United Arab Emirates. It was sent by Bangladeshi-born ISIS funder Md. Shahid Uddin Khan, who has been living in the United Kingdom for last few years along with his family. Sitting in Britain, Khans are continuing various forms of jihadist activities. Recently he has established an organization named ‘Astha’ which aims at unseating democratically elected governments in the world and replace those with Caliphate. By now, Md. Shahid Uddin Khan already has expanded his activities in Sweden and the United States through two of his recruits.
According to documents available with various intelligence agencies in Bangladesh, Md. Shahid Uddin Khan hails from a radical Muslim family while his wife Farjana Anjum too hails from a similar family background. This couple’s daughters though are living and being educated in Britain is notoriously radicalized and is working as lone wolves. They have been targeting various individuals and trying to convert them into Islam.
In January this year, Md. Shahid Uddin Khan used illegal channel in transferring an amount equivalent to ninety-two thousand dollars. This amount went from Dubai to Colombo. It may be mentioned here that, last year this newspaper published several reports exposing a secret conspiracy by a conglomerate of several jihadist outfits of staging terrorist attacks in a number of South Asian nations.
According to media reports, Islamic State (ISIS) funder Shahid Uddin Khan, his wife Farjana Anjum and daughters are already under the radar of international media for their direct involvement into jihadist activities.
Khan’s sympathy towards ISIS brides:
According to credible sources, Md. Shahid Uddin Khan and his family are sending thousands of dollars each month as “stipends’ to some of the ISIS brides including Shamima Begum. They also are providing financial assistance to these notorious women in bearing their legal expenses.
Md. Shahid Uddin Khan and his family reportedly have told those ISIS brides of granting ‘special asylum’ in Bangladesh once his organization Astha (faith) established Caliphate in Bangladesh.
Shouldn’t this family be deported?
United Kingdom should immediately deport Md. Shahid Uddin Khan and his family and confiscate their fortune worth millions of British pounds. Earlier it was reported in the media that Khan was coordinating with various jihadist groups with the nefarious agenda of launching series of jihadist attacks in Bangladesh.
Damsana Ranadhiran is a retired intelligence official.