Hunt for terror financing

The government has ordered the intelligence agencies to investigate the expenditure accounts of country’s Islami banks including the Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited [IBBL] and other Islamic financial institutions.
The Ministry of Home Affairs ordered the probe against the banks’ CSR accounts following the latest
decision of the meeting of National Committee on Militancy Resistance and Prevention held at Secretariat on Thursday afternoon.
Recently, the IBBL submitted a report to the central bank, the Bangladesh Bank [BB], about its expenditures. In the report, the IBBL showed that it spent money from its overall profit earnings. But the BB expressed suspicion over the statement and sent a report to the Home Ministry about its findings.
“The Islamic banks and insurance companies earlier had earlier been accused of militant financing. So, the intelligence agencies have been asked to inspect the statements of the financial institutions,” State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said.
Khan was talking to the newsmen after attending the meeting.
He said: “As per decision, the Committee will monitor how the Islamic or Shariah-based banks and insurance companies spend their profits. As well, the government wants to know the sources of money of the militant outfits and from whom they are getting funds. So, we have increased intelligence monitoring.”
“The government is also watching the activities of the Chittagong Hill Tracts based NGOs. Their financial reports will be examined to control militant financing,” he added.
A report of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, a Congressional watchdog panel released on July 17, 2012 stated that two Bangladesh based banks, IBBL and Social Islami Bank Ltd [SIBL], were involved in terror financing.
According to the report the British banking giant HSBC supplied dollars to IBBL and SIBL despite evidence of their links to terror financing. HSBC despite recommendation by its own Financial Intelligence Group [FIG] did not ask these two banks to enhance monitoring for suspicious transactions.
Meanwhile, the BB has been monitoring the IBBL activities for last few years and appointed an observer in 2010 after getting the allegations from the Zakaat Board that the bank misused huge amount of money, collected from the public as Zakaat.
BB also alleged that the IBBL maintained accounts of people, who were on the United Nation’s suspicious people’s list. But the IBBL authorities did not disclose information of those accounts to the central bank till the date.
Earlier on April 15, the Prime Minister’s Office sent a letter to the BB governor asking for information on the IBBL transactions.
IBBL, supported by the Jamaat-e-Islami, has come under scanner of intelligence agencies soon after the war crimes trial had began.