Gaddafi patronized killers of Bangabandhu PART-V

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For the past couple of years, investigative team of Blitz has been running comprehensive research and information-gathering, with the goal of tracking the trails of the fugitive killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. As part of our investigation, we have gathered vital information from several credible sources, including some intelligence sources. Based on these data, we are publishing this serialized investigative report. This is the fourth part of a series of investigative articles, where we eventually have succeeded in finding the current locations of a number of the self-proclaimed killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Just before Gaddafi and members of his family were left with no option but to go on the run following an outbreak of people’s wrath in Libya, Khandakar Abdur Rashid shifted from Libya to Pakistan with a large amount of Gaddafi’s ill-gotten fund.

According to information, Khandekar Abdur Rashid has been assigned by Gaddafi to relocate at least a few billion American dollars to some industrial and business projects in a number of African nations, Pakistan and the Middle East. It is also learnt that since 1997, Khandakar Abdur Rashid has invested huge amount of Gaddafi’s money in some projects in construction, farming, livestock, catering, printing and other projects. In the same year, Khandakar Abdur Rashid tried to purchase stakes in casinos based in Nepal, Macao, and the Philippines, while he also was looking for setting up businesses in Russia and several former Soviet Republics.

Khandakar Abdur Rashid succeeded in earning trust of Muammar Gaddafi and several key figures in his government. Years before Gaddafi was ousted from power, the Libyan dictator felt the dire necessity of relocating major segment of his secret wealth to foreign countries mostly through few of his confidantes, where Khandakar Abdur Rashid was one of them. It is also learned that Khandakar Abdur Rashid was contacting some of his course mates and “brother officers” in Pakistan army with the offer of investing in businesses. He reportedly had also entered Colombia’s drug cartel and invested at least few hundred million of Gaddafi’s dollars. Meanwhile, Rashid’s contacts in Pakistani spy agency Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) had offered him to join arms and narco trades.

It may be mentioned here that, Muammar Gaddafi introduced Khandakar Abdur Rashid to Adnan Khashoggi, the infamous arms dealer. Khashoggi, born on July 25, 1935 was a controversial Saudi businessman known for his lavish business deals in arms and his posh lifestyle. He is estimated to have had a peak net worth of around US$ 4 billion in the early 1980s, and was once the wealthiest man in the world.

Involvement of Bangabandhu’s killers in international terrorism

As one of the most trusted men of Muammar Gaddafi and his de facto defense advisor, Khandakar Abdur Rashid actively participated in blueprinting the 1986 Berlin 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing, in which two American soldiers died. President Ronald Reagan decided to retaliate this heinous terrorist attack militarily.

The CIA was critical of the move, believing that Syria was a greater threat and that an attack would strengthen Gaddafi’s reputation; however, Libya was recognized as a “soft target”.

President Reagan was supported by the United Kingdom but opposed by other European allies, who argued that it would contravene international law.

In Operation El Dorado Canyon, orchestrated on 15 April 1986, US military planes launched a series of air-strikes on Libya, bombing military installations in various parts of the country, killing around 100 Libyans, including several civilians. One of the targets had been Gaddafi’s home. Himself unharmed, two of Gaddafi’s sons were injured, and he claimed that his four-year-old adopted daughter Hanna was killed, although her existence has since been questioned.

Later, Muammar Gaddafi began publicly lambasting “US imperialism”, which had helped him in emerging as an “anti-imperialist” and it helped his both domestically and across the Arab world. Bangabandhu’s self-proclaimed killers, Khandakar Abdur Rashid and Syed Faruk Rahman played important role in overseeing global propaganda projecting Gaddafi as the “savior” of the Muslim world. At this stage, they established connections with a number of newspapers in the Muslim world and helped them with financial incentives and received extensive propaganda in favor of Gaddafi. Rashid-Faruk duo had also helped a Bangladeshi journalist named Chowdhury Muhammad Faruk in bringing out a vernacular daily newspaper named Dainik Millat. This pro-Gaddafi newspaper later emerged as the mouthpiece of Freedom Party.

The masterminds behind Pan Am 102 bombing

On December 21, 1988, on a cold and ultimately chilling evening just four days before Christmas, Pan Am Flight 103 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport bound for New York City. Among the 259 passengers and crew were 190 Americans.

They never made it home. Less than 40 minutes into the flight, the plane exploded over the sky above Lockerbie, Scotland, killing everyone on board and 11 Scots on the ground.

Until 9/11, it was one of the world’s most lethal acts of air terrorism and one of the largest and most complex acts of international terrorism ever investigated by the FBI.

End of Part V

Also read: Part-V of this serialized report here

Also read: Tracking trails of the fugitive killers of Bangabandhu PART-IV

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