BB intensifies monitoring on suspicious transactions: Governor
UNB, Dhaka
Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday pointed his finger at some new NGOs launched during the rule of former BNP-led alliance government and said they might be behind the funding of militant groups.
Referring to such NGOs, he said there were some investments in the country that might not have directly helped the militants, but helped their patrons. “This is (new NGOs) other source of fund for militants.”
“A lot of things can be uncovered looking deep into the activities of some new NGOs who got approval during the tenure of Mujaheed (Ali Ahsan Mohammed Mujaheed, Jamaat secretary general and former social welfare minister),” Muhith told reporters at the Finance Ministry amid claims by a minister that JMB militants were involved in last month’s BDR carnage.
Commerce Minister Faruk Khan, also coordinator of the probe bodies on BDR carnage, told the media recently that a link of JMB militants was found behind the February 25 BDR mutiny and mayhem.
“Let’s try what we can do in this regard,” said Finance Minister Muhith, in reply to a question about the measures the government was contemplating to stop such alleged financing of militants. During the previous BNP-led 4-party alliance government, some 473 local and 25 foreign NGOs have been enlisted with the NGO Bureau. Of them, 129 local and eight foreign NGOs got enlisted in the fiscal 2006-07.
Since 1990, the NGO Bureau has approved 2,367 local and foreign NGOs who run on foreign funding.
Muhith said the immediate past caretaker government had taken some good initiatives to stop terrorist financing and money laundering and these should continue.
Besides, he said, Bangladesh Bank is trying to be a member of EGMOND Group, which deals with international financial intelligence, to exchange information on suspicious financial transactions.
“All these initiatives will facilitate preventing the terrorist financing,” the Finance Minister said.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed on Wednesday said that the central bank has intensified monitoring on the suspicious transactions in the commercial banks to see whether there is any link of the transactions with the militants.
“We’re examining the transactions afresh,” he told reporters after attending a workshop on “Micro-insurance and Poverty” at PKSF Bhaban.
Besides, the governor said, Bangladesh Bank is also exchanging information with the institutions like Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to identify the suspicious transactions.
Courtesy of The Bangldesh Today
