05-06-2004, 01:50 AM
<b>Saudi funding Bangla terror groups</b>
5 May 2004: <b>In the last one year, the Saudi government has funded Bangladeshâs radical political Islamic NGOs to the tune of $200 million, while its Islamic institutions have set up more than three-hundred madrasas in that country, some of them very close to the Indian border</b>.
Diplomats said that the Saudi government has also bankrolled the hardline Jamaat<b>-e-Islami Bangladesh, the terrorist organisation, the Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami-B, and the Islamic Chhatra Shivr</b>, and given three-thousand visas to Bangladeshi students to study at Saudi religious institutions.
The madrasas have been established by Jeddahâs grand mosque committee and other Saudi religious bodies.
At its recent meeting in Dhaka with the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), Border Security Force officials pointed to the mushrooming of terrorist camps near the border with India, and the BDR said these were madrasas, but refused permission for an inspection visit without approval from Bangladesh foreign office.
Diplomats and Indian officials fear that with Pakistan coming increasingly under the US scanner, terrorist groups, their front organisations, and terrorist money launderers are shifting base to Bangladesh, and they point to the appointment of Hassan Chaudhary, a confidant of prime minister Khalida Zia, as the countryâs interlocutor with Islamic countries for donation and aid.
<b>Sources said that Hassan is wanted in at least two Islamic countries (Oman and Qatar) for violating foreign-exchange laws, and is alleged to be involved in money-laundering</b>.
Diplomats also said that the Begum Zia government is fully acquainted with Saudi funding to Bangladeshâs extremist and terrorist organisations
5 May 2004: <b>In the last one year, the Saudi government has funded Bangladeshâs radical political Islamic NGOs to the tune of $200 million, while its Islamic institutions have set up more than three-hundred madrasas in that country, some of them very close to the Indian border</b>.
Diplomats said that the Saudi government has also bankrolled the hardline Jamaat<b>-e-Islami Bangladesh, the terrorist organisation, the Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami-B, and the Islamic Chhatra Shivr</b>, and given three-thousand visas to Bangladeshi students to study at Saudi religious institutions.
The madrasas have been established by Jeddahâs grand mosque committee and other Saudi religious bodies.
At its recent meeting in Dhaka with the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), Border Security Force officials pointed to the mushrooming of terrorist camps near the border with India, and the BDR said these were madrasas, but refused permission for an inspection visit without approval from Bangladesh foreign office.
Diplomats and Indian officials fear that with Pakistan coming increasingly under the US scanner, terrorist groups, their front organisations, and terrorist money launderers are shifting base to Bangladesh, and they point to the appointment of Hassan Chaudhary, a confidant of prime minister Khalida Zia, as the countryâs interlocutor with Islamic countries for donation and aid.
<b>Sources said that Hassan is wanted in at least two Islamic countries (Oman and Qatar) for violating foreign-exchange laws, and is alleged to be involved in money-laundering</b>.
Diplomats also said that the Begum Zia government is fully acquainted with Saudi funding to Bangladeshâs extremist and terrorist organisations