No difference between Khaleda and militant kingpin: Dr Hasan Mahmud

DHAKA, Mar 05, 2015 (BSS)- Publicity and Publication Affairs Secretary of the ruling Awami League Dr Hasan Mahmud today said there is no difference between BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and the militant kingpins.

"A few political parties after the partition of the sub-continent tried to impose their ideologies upon the people choosing the path of terrorism and anarchy. These parties including that of the Siraj Shikdar's party could not stay in politics as they had chosen the path of terrorism, anarchy and clandestine killings. Those leaders were identified in the history as terrorists with eventual death of their political ideologies. Begum Khaleda Zia would be depicted as a militant kingpin if anybody goes through the book of history two decades ago from now," he said.

Dr Hasan Mahmud said this while speaking as the chief guest at a public rally-cum-human-chain programme in the city.

Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote organised the programme in front of the National Press Club protesting the BNP-led 20-party combine's terrorism, anarchy and killing people by blasting firebombs in the name of siege-hartal programmes.

Jote general secretary Arun Sarker Rana presided over the programme, also addressed, among others, by Dhaka City Awami League (AL) joint general secretary Haji Mohammad Selim, assistant secretary to AL sub-committee Advocate Balaram Poddar and Muktijoddha Projanma League general secretary Rokon Uddin Pathan.

Dr Hasan Mahmud said, "Begum Khaleda Zia doesn't abide by the laws of the land and the court. She adopts various tricks to escape from her appearance before the court on the specific date of hearing in the graft case she has now been facing with. She doesn't pay heed to anybody's advice. Not only the people of Bangladesh, the entire world has become aloud against her anarchy."

The Awami League leader said, "Begum Khaleda Zia can't be termed as a leader of a political party now, She has turned into a demon appearing in the role of Mollah Omar. Her party (BNP) has now turned into a militant outfit due to her various whimsical decisions and activities and Begum Zia has surfaced as a militant kingpin in the world. Bangladesh should be saved from the hands of the militant kingpin."

Dr Hasan Mahmud hoped that the government would take appropriate action against Begum Khaleda Zia in accordance with the rule of the court order and the existing laws of the land with a view to upholding the rule of law.

CPB's 67th founding anniversary tomorrow

The 67th founding anniversary of Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) will be observed tomorrow in a befitting manner.
In 1925, the Communist Party of India (CPI) was established. In the Second Congress of the CPI,
representatives of Communist Party from Pakistan founded the Communist Party of Pakistan and its East Pakistan Provincial Committee on March 6 in 1948 in separate sessions.
The Communist Party of East Pakistan started its activities by constituting separate central committee in the 4th Conference of the party. It recognized that conference as the first party congress.
Since its inception, the CPB has been playing a unique role in all democratic movement including the Language Movement, the War of Liberation, the anti-autocracy movement, anti communalism and imperialism movement, the movement for protecting the national resources, the movement for trial of war criminals and the movement for banning Jamaat-Shibir.
On the occasion of the 67th founding anniversary of CPB, its President Comrade Mujahidul Islam Selim and General Secretary Syed Abu Jafar Ahmed have congratulated all the countrymen including workers, farmers, farm labourers and working class people.
They also paid tributes to those who embraced martyrdom while going to uphold the party flag and greeted those who made and are making contribution in the past and the present to the party.
The CPB will hold a discussion tomorrow at 4 pm at Mukti Bhaban at Purana Paltan on the occasion of its 67th founding anniversary. 

by--BSS

The Gold Rush

Recent incidents of gold seizures have exposed that some of the top officials of Bangladesh Biman are involved in smuggling.

| Khondoker Tazuddin |

Customs Intelligence raided a Biman flight and recovered 106 kilogram gold bars worth nearly BDT470 million from its toilets on April 26, 2014 and arrested a flight engineer in this connection

Almost every other day, smuggled gold is being captured at the airports of the country, and no law-enforcement drive seems to be sufficient to put an end to the trafficking of this precious metal into Bangladesh. According to intelligence information, along with top officials of Bangladesh Biman, many influential people are involved in this illegal trade and the problem lies very much within the system. In their opinion, it will never be possible to eliminate gold smuggling unless the actual culprits can be arrested and tried.

Bangladesh is now being used as a safe route to smuggle gold. International smugglers get the gold from Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, and then this gold is trafficked into India. India has a demand for 163,000 kilograms of gold every year. It is estimated that 500 kilograms of gold is trafficked from Bangladesh to India per day. From Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, 5077 kilograms of gold is being trafficked, which means smugglers get the gold from various countries of the Middle East and traffick it into India. To carry out successful smuggling of gold, they usually maintain links with top officials of Biman, influential politicians, customs officers, police administration, and others. So in reality, the administration is partially helping in gold smuggling.

Since the 1980s, Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and Shah Amanat International Airport have been used as gold-smuggling routes. Considering the geographical location and weak security management of Bangladesh, international gold smugglers use it as a safe transit for their contraband. According to customs data, in 1985 there was an 85 kilogram gold haul. In 1986, it rose to 120 kilograms. In 1987, the amount captured was 135 kilograms, which increased to 140 kilograms in 1988, 146 in 1989, 156 in 1990, 166 in 1991, 199 in 1992, 177 in 1993, 180 in 1994, 198 in 1995, and 05 kgs of gold in 1996. The place from April 013 014 18 Customs Intelligence and Investigation Department of the month of October, according to X, capturing a total of 630 kg of gold, 874 grams or 874 grams of 18 kg measures, which is more than the gold seized in the past 5 years. The market price of gold seized during this time was well over BDT3 billion. Customs Intelligence arrested 82 people in connection with the smuggling of the recovered gold.

Indians have a great fascination for gold, both in terms of jewelry and storage value. Wedding ceremonies are not possible without exchange of gold jewelry. Hindu devotees give gold as a gift to their deities in temples. In India there is a festival called 'Diwali' when it is mandatory for a husband to gift gold ornaments to his wife. The sale of gold on this particular day is believed to be more than the sale of gold during the rest of the year in India. Gold smuggling, therefore, comes as a natural outcome of this ravenous demand for the precious metal amongst its 1.3 billion people. The price of smuggled gold is five thousand taka per bhori of 11.664 grams.

Recent incidents of gold seizures have exposed that some of the top officials of Bangladesh Biman are involved in smuggling. The chairman of Biman, air vice-marshal (retd) Jamaluddin Ahmed's name has been mentioned for giving indirect blessings to traffickers. Investigation has revealed that his biological son, Zubair Ahmed, and godson Mahmudul Haque Palash, joined hands to run a smuggling syndicate. Country Manager, Kazi Syed Ahsan used to allegedly help them from Dubai. Investigation has found that this syndicate was working behind all the smuggling scenes since 2010. Mahmudul Haque Palash, godson of Biman's Chairman, and his airhostess wife, Nurjahan, used to do all the negotiations.

During the police remand, Palash informed that starting from the sweeper, trolley men, pilot, cabin crew, officers and employees working at different levels of the national airline, security guards and others at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, are all associated with smuggling. In the questioning, Palash also informed that police and law-enforcement personnel, members of the intelligence, even some yellow journalists of national newspapers, used to get regular commissions. With their collaboration, at least 60 kilograms of gold entered the country every day. Two general managers and one deputy general manager of Biman used to get paid 1.5 million taka every day for their support to the smugglers. These three officers were Mominul Islam, general manager for security, Atik Sobhan, general manager for airport service and former general manager of BFCC, and Shamim Nazrul, deputy chief of Training. Moreover, deputy general manager Emdad Hossain was also amongst the abettors. Director of administration, Rajpati Sarkar, used to control everything at HSIA on behalf of the godfather of gold smuggling, Palash.

Every month this syndicate allegedly trafficked 2 metric tons of gold through HSIA. Twenty metric tons of gold was smuggled every year. In the past three years, smugglers have paid commissions worth BDT1.65 billion taka for gold trafficking.

In the investigation, the names that came out as gold smugglers are, Shona Mujib, Shona Kamal, Shona Siraj, Shona Monir, Shona Kader, Taposh, Morshed Kamal, Mintu, Nizam, Hasan, Abu Miah, Riyaz, Ehsan, Shona Babu, Roman, Abbas, Najir, Rofique, Faruk, Abu Saleh, Miah Jahangir, Sumon, Ali, Emran Ali, Mokid Miah, Abdus Shohid, Miron Ali, Mamun, Joy, Kalu Miah, Rasel, Bozlu Haque Dulu, Kamal Hussain, and Mobarak Hossain. Apart from them, Mohammad Ali, Jamil Hussain, Jamil Ahmed, and Hussain Askar Babu are alleged to be amongst the gold smuggling kingpins.

Flight safety officer, Kamrul Hasan Bipu, and Zafer Ahmed have been arrested by RAB in connection with gold smuggling. In the interrogation they confessed that in 2013 alone, they smuggled gold worth BDT10 billion via airports in the country.

Indian traders are working in cahoots with their Bangladesh counterparts to run the gold smuggling business. Indian gold makers Suresh Karan, Julhash Mia, Rajiv Shubro, Niaz Kumarji, Shamol Saha, and Rampal, are involved in this smuggling from the other side of the border. Pakistani nationals Ajmal Helal, Mohammed Ali, Ghias Hazari, Md. Sulaiman Abdur Rahim Jinnath, and Asif Mehdi are also involved in gold smuggling.

From Hong Kong this smuggling is monitored by Pappu Sajel. UAE citizens Hammam al-Habib, Asif Murshedy, Rasul Amin, Jubba, Piashar Marhabi, Ramatul Faraji are members of this gang. Dubai expatriate Bangladeshi citizens, Shafiqul Alam Mintu, Abbas, and Shahin, buy gold and make arrangements to send the gold to Bangladesh. Nozrul Islam Liton, Jibon Podder, Babul Podder, Anisur Rahman Sinha, Ripon, Kader, Hasan, and Emon work for them. Liton amongst them has already been arrested and sent to jail.

It emerged from investigations that cars carrying the smuggled gold are tagged with MP stickers and are taken to Jibonnagar of Chuwadanga. From there the gold is taken to the border by motorcycle. All the arrangements used to be made by Palash so that the gold reached Chuwadanga safely. Indian citizen Biswajit, Biplob, Shibh, Pankaj, and Babu used to come to Bangladesh to receive the gold. In addition, Indian citizens Gauhar Lalu, Govinda, Bijan Halder, Laxman, Gopal, and Rupsaha came via the Shatkhira border to take gold from Bangladesh. They were supported in various ways by former customs officer Wajed, and Rekha Parvin of Civil Aviation, flight officers of Biman, Shahjahan Siraj, Imran Ali, Abdul Matin and Anisul Haque, Chuwadanga's Dilip Babu and Giridhari Lal provided logistic support to the smuggling syndicate.

Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport is controlled by a man named Jasim. He has an agreement with the smuggling ring. This man does not smuggle gold only by airways, but from Malaysia and Myanmar by sea. It is believed that a parliament member from Jessore may be involved in gold smuggling with Jasim.

Investigators have come to know that some money exchange organizations are also involved in smuggling gold. Zakir of Anik Money Exchange, Tipu of Bhai Bhai Money Exchange, Ali Newaz of Dhaka Money Exchange, Jahangir Miah of Paramount Money Exchange, and Bakaul Miah of Zakir Money Exchange are part of the syndicate. Already, Harun-ar-Rashid, the owner of Farhana Money Exchange in Uttara, has been taken into custody.

While gold smuggling at HSIA and the involvement of Biman officials are now open secrets, it is said that 5 percent of the daily amount of smuggled gold is deliberately given away to keep the intelligence team busy so that the rest 95 percent of gold can have safe passage. When asked about the involvement of his son and godson in gold smuggling, irregularities and corruption, Biman chairman Jamal Uddin Ahmed replied, "I demand a fair and impartial investigation into gold smuggling. There are vested quarters inside and outside Bangladesh Biman who are trying to malign the board. Palash is known to me, but that does not make him my godson. Why would I take responsibility for his actions? I did not support him in smuggling and my son is not involved in it either. An organized gang has forced Palash to get into this business and time will make everything crystal clear."■