Five BB teams probed five militancy-linked accounts held with three banks-- Islami Bank Bangladesh, Rupali Bank and Janata Bank.

In a brief report submitted to BB Governor Salehuddin Ahmed yesterday, the probe teams said the anomalies were detected in seven TTs from Islami Bank Gazipur Branch and one from its Savar Branch to its Lal Dighirparh Branch in Sylhet, sources at the BB said.

The eight transfers made in the last two months amounted about Tk 4.15 lakh. In each transfer, the sender mentioned an account held with the Islami Bank branch and a fake account holder's name. But, in all the eight instances, the bank officials did not apply the standard process of verifying the sender's name and other information provided, the sources said.

They said officials at Gazipur and Savar Islami Bank branches claimed it was simply by mistake that they did not crosscheck the sender's information.

But, the investigators think repetition of the same mistake in all the cases is highly unusual and suspicious. There is much chance that a few bank staffs of the two branches might have connived with the sender, a source remarked.

The BB probe however did not find any transaction in many years in the other two accounts with Rupali and Janata banks.

BB Governor Ahmed last night told The Daily Star he was yet to read the probe report. When asked if he is going to forward the report to the intelligence agencies, Salehuddin said [before doing that], "We will first discuss with the bank concerned."

The BB will continue investigating into this issue, the governor added.

The BB sent the probe teams following last week's surrender of Jama'atul Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) chief Abdur Rahman, when the police found some banking documents in his Sylhet hideout, including three chequebooks of the three banks. One of the accounts is with Rupali Bank Pallabi Branch in Dhaka, another with Janata Bank Brahmanbaria Branch and the last with Islami Bank Lal Dighirparh Branch in Sylhet.

The account with the Islami Bank Lal Dighirparh Branch is in the name of Sabbir Ahmed, though it really had been operated by Saidur Rahman, former Habiganj district amir of Jamaat-e-Islami, who has been on the run since Rahman's arrest. The account with Rupali Bank Pallabi Branch is also in the name of Saidur.

Meanwhile, the two visiting US Treasury Department intelligence experts yesterday in separate sessions oriented four officials each of the attorney general's office and CID police, and some BB officials on how the US government's financial intelligence unit works.

Mary Jo Melancon and Kristen J King of US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in Powerpoint presentations illustrated their systems and operations at work to safeguard the US financial system from abuses and crimes like terrorist financing and money laundering, meeting sources said.