Huji managed even a charity licence

Target was to ensure foreign funding for militancy
Banned Islamist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami set up a charity called Faruqi Welfare Foundation last year to use it as a cover for receiving funds from abroad.
The foundation however could not be in operation as it came under intelligence watch a few days after obtaining the certificate from the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC) on June 29 that year.
Intelligence officials say the militants founded the charity to secure funds through a way around tight measures against terror financing in the post-9/11 years.
They observe the Huji leaders are desperate for funds as they need the money to have a vast network of qawmi madrasas and fresh recruits for “jihad”.
On paper, Faruqi Welfare Foundation’s objectives however are building mosques, madrasas, orphanages and Islamic research centres and facilitating religious education.
Already struggling to start functioning, the foundation suffered another blow after its Chairman Sheikh Abdus Salam was arrested on March 23 for suspected links to the CPB rally blast that killed five people at Paltan Maidan on January 20, 2001.
Salam, former Huji boss and an Afghan war veteran, is also convenor of Islamic Democratic Party (IDP), a political party floated in May last year on permission from the caretaker administration.
Kazi Azizul Huq, an adviser to IDP, which failed to get registered with the Election Commission, is a vice-chairman of the foundation.
Mohammad Lokman, another member of IDP, is secretary, while Salam’s family members make up the rest of the nine-member executive council.
At first, most of the council members were Afghan war veterans. But they had themselves replaced by Salam’s family members as soon as they found out they were being tracked by intelligence officials.
Mufti Abdul Hye, ex-Huji chief Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Moulana Ruhul Amin, Moulana Abul Qashem and Moulana Monir are among those who were in the original executive council.
All of them have been on the run since Awami League-led grand alliance came to power in January.
NI Mamun, who gave legal assistance to Faruqi Foundation, told The Daily Star he did not know that Huji members were behind the charity.
He said he learned it a few days after he helped it secure the certificate (S-7972/1162) from the registrar of joint stock companies.
He got the information from the registrar’s office staff, who had been briefed by intelligence officials about Huji’s involvement.
Mamun said the original application did not quite go in line with the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Organisations formed for literary, scientific, or charitable purposes are registered under this act.
“I brought some changes to make it comply with the rules for registration,” he added.
Asked if the foundation was set up to collect foreign funds, its Secretary Lokman said, “Many might think so. The fact is, we want to do good things for the society, especially for the poor.”
Talking to The Daily Star, he also denied having Afghan war veterans as members of the first executive council.
Of the present council, Salam’s father-in-law Abul Hossain Mandal is vice-chairman, wife Fatima Begum is finance secretary, brother-in-law Golam Kibria assistant general secretary, brother Sheikh Shah Jalal, brother-in-law Shariful Islam alias Saju and cousin Sheikh Morshed Ali are members.
The government outlawed Huji in October 2005. The militant group carried out several bomb and grenade attacks between 1998 and 2004. It is also blacklisted by the US and the UK.
Before the twin tower attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, it had funds from World Islamic Front of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, Karachi-based Al-Rashid Trust and Zakat (the amount a Muslim gives to the poor and the needy every year out of religious obligations) from the Middle Eastern countries.
In the years afterwards, it saw foreign funds reduced to a trickle. Things got even worse in the last couple of years as government and non-government financial institutions at home stepped up vigilance to guard against money laundering and terrorist financing.
SOURCES OF INCOME
Copies of the foundation’s Memorandum and Articles of Association that The Daily Star has obtained say the sources of income would be contribution from members, admission fees, project fees, monthly and annual fees, grants and donations from government and foreign donor agencies.
They also say the charity will follow the Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Ordinance, 1978, a law to regulate receipts and expenditure of foreign donations for voluntary activities.
ACTIVITIES
In the Memorandum, providing comprehensive education on Quran for the poor, orphaned and disadvantaged children and youths, and developing awareness about Islamic and conventional laws are also among its areas of work.
SALAM’S BACKGROUND
Abdus Salam is one of the five founder-members of Huji, Bangladesh. They formed the militant outfit in Paktia province of Afghanistan on June 17, 1986.
Of them, only Salam managed to get back home while the rest died in the war against Soviet forces.
He led a group of Afghan war returnees to launch Huji at a press conference at the National Press Club on April 30, 1992.
Salam went to Afghanistan in 1984 while he was a madrasa student in Karachi. He fought alongside the Mujahideen until the Soviet troops were pulled out in 1989.
In the early nineties, he went to the strife-torn country several times to fight for Talibans.

Courtesy of The daily Star