Dhaka unit of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime, CTTC, has found evidence of extremist funding and clandestine activities of Jamaat Islami under the operation of an NGO, Small Kindness Bangladesh, SKB.
Terrorism experts say that this body used to bring funds from abroad, ostensibly to support Rohingyas and then channeled it to militant funding.
Raiding SKB’s Uttara office, CTTC officials have found a list of 220 persons, linked to Jamaat, who used to give regular donations to the organisation
CTTC deputy commissioner, Mohibul Islam Khan, says: “SKB took approval as an NGO and accumulated overseas funds to be used for militant funding.”
On 8 November last, after a raid at a house in DOHS, eight persons were arrested.
CTTC informs that SKB began operation on 25 May, 2016 with NGO Bureau approval.
Under the guise of humanitarian work in Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazaar, this organisation was disseminating radical ideology, say CTTC officials.
From the NGO office, several documents as to who may be Jamaat’s candidates in the upcoming election, were recovered. The NGO is also accused of money laundering.
In 2015, another NGO called World Assembly of Muslim Youth was shut down for its involvement in militant funding. Reportedly, people from this NGO later formed the SKB, which was given approval without proper scrutiny.