Sources said large amounts of money have recently been withdrawn by cheques from a joint account of a private bank's Uttara branch in Dhaka to pay off RIHS officials and carry out construction work.

The account belongs to RIHS-run Kidney Dialysis Centre Director Zafar Musa Abu Moaz, an Iraqi national, and RIHS Bangladeshi Office Secretary Fazlur Rahman.

Though the sums were withdrawn for official purpose, the cheques did not bear any seals of the NGO, said the sources.

Abu Moaz was ousted from Iraq for his alleged ties with international extremist outfit Ikhwanul Muslimin, they added.

NGO bureau sources said they are knowledgeable about one RIHS account with Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited's Uttara branch that was suspended on requests from the central bank and intelligence agencies.

In the second week of March, Tk 1 lakh in cash and other valuables were stolen from the Kidney Dialysis Centre in Banani in Dhaka. Interestingly, the authorities did not file a complaint with the concerned police station.

The RIHS has received huge amounts of money through hundi since the arrest of Ahle Hadith Andolan, Bangladesh (Ahab) chief Asadullah Al Galib in February 2005 as the government stopped releasing its funds.

In November, the RIHS managed to release a sum of about Tk 2 crore days before the suicide attacks on courts by outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

The fund was distributed among 'contractors', mostly followers of Galib and his deputy Abdus Samad Salafi (now behind bars) on bearer cheques instead of account payee ones.

Galib and Rahman established their relations with the RIHS following recommendations by Indian militant kingpin Abdul Matin Salafi, who was expelled from the country in 1988.

Meanwhile, visits to Bangladesh by RIHS top officials before or after several major incidents related to Islamist militancy are widely believed to have much significance.

RIHS Asia regional chief Kuwaiti citizen Abu Khaled Falah al Mutairee came to Bangladesh on March 6 after JMB chief Abdur Rahman was trapped in Sylhet on March 2.

Despite tight vigilance, Mutairee met three Ahab men -- Maolana Akhter Madani of Naogaon and two other unidentified people -- at a Gulshan hotel in Dhaka on March 7.

Akhter, a teacher of RIHS-run Nashipur Islamic Centre in Bogra, studied in Pakistan and at Madina University in Saudi Arabia on Galib's recommendations.

RIHS Bangladesh chief Abdul Aziz Mal-ullah, a Kuwaiti citizen, who seldom visits Bangladesh, landed in Dhaka three days before the August 17 serial blasts and stayed in the country until August 21.

Tarek Sami al Isa, RIHS central chairman, visited Bangladesh during November 13-15 and a JMB suicide bomber assassinated two judges on the second day of his tour.

Sources believe the top RIHS officials' visits were made through diplomatic channels and they had good opportunities to leave cash money behind.

The top suspected Bangladeshi national in RIHS, Akramuzzaman Bin Abdus Salam, was present during the Ahab annual conference in Nawdapara in Rajshahi on February 16-17.

Sources said the RIHS funded Ahab for holding the two-day conference where all attendants were brought in at the Islamist outfit's cost.

Before the August 17 blasts and early in the last year, four foreign nationals -- two Pakistanis, one Saudi and one unidentified man -- watched militants' performances at a remote char of Sariakandi in Bogra.

A source who witnessed the training told The Daily Star JMB chief Rahman asked him to go there following Galib's diktat.

He said the arms, which were stolen from police during the Moheshpur fight in Joypurhat in 2003, were used in the training.

JMB chief Rahman also told the media in 2004 that he got funds from the RIHS while investigators have found evidence that the NGO is funding Ahab, which has support for the banned outfit.