Detained Huji leader sent Tk 1cr to militant thru' hundis

Detained UK unit chief of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (Huji) Golam Mostofa had sent around Tk 1 crore since 1995 till his arrest in 2007 to different local militant groups and most of the amount was sent through illegal channel.
He sent only Tk 8 to Tk 10 lakh through proper channel and the rest through hundis (informal ways) or by the people, who visited Bangladesh on different occasions during the period from the UK, carried the money.
Bangladesh-born British citizen Mostofa, who was arrested in Sylhet on Thursday, disclosed the facts to the detectives on the first day of his interrogation on a four-day remand, said a Detective Branch (DB) official yesterday.
Mostofa, who was convicted for 17 years in jail in an arms case filed in 2007, was trying to reorganise Huji activities after coming out of jail on a High Court bail around 14 months ago.
DB officials said they are now on a hunt for around 15 people whom Mostofa had contacted to reorganise the party activities after coming out of jail. They, however, refused to disclose the names for the sake of investigation.
"We are now trying to identify the names from whom he collected the money and to those whom he provided the fund," DB Assistant Commissioner SM Rafiqul Islam told The Daily Star.
London police filed a case against him under terrorist financing act of that country, police said.
Mostofa, an Afghan war veteran, also admitted to the interrogators that he used to maintain contact with Huji Bangladesh leaders and those of Hizb-ut Tahrir to inquire about the fund he sent for militancy purpose.
"We suspect that Mostofa also provided some funds toJama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh as he already admitted to have contacted some JMB leaders," said another DB official, seeking anonymity.
"We're also trying to identify those people," he added.
DB officials said Mostofa admitted to them that he provided detained former Huji chief Maulana Abdus Salam and another man Tk 4 lakh to take measures to set him free from jail, but they did nothing for him.