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| Bangladesh |
| Muslim charities face security probe in Bangladesh |
| 2009-03-25 |
| Bangladeshi authorities said on Tuesday they were investigating dozens of Muslim charities in the impoverished country over allegations they are funding militants. Finance Minister AMA Muhith told AFP the government had decided to launch the probe a month after a mutiny at a military base in the capital, in which authorities suspect militants played a role. "The investigation is under way. We are scrutinising their activities," Muhith said about the charities. He said authorities were closely investigating organisations that were created between 2001 and 2006, under the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led coalition government. Thirty groups were under investigation, according to Bengali language paper Samakal, which said there were more than 78,000 non-government organisations (NGOs) operating in the grindingly poor nation of 144 million people. It is not known how many are classed as "Islamic". More than 70 people were killed in the mutiny last month at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Dhaka. At least 56 of the dead were senior army officers. The government has said it has found links that suggest militants from the banned Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were involved in the revolt. The JMB was blamed for a series of bombings and suicide attacks throughout Bangladesh in 2005 in which 28 people died. The group's leaders were hanged under the last military-backed government, in power for two years from January 2007. Raid: Meanwhile, Bangladesh soldiers raided a madrassa on Tuesday as part of countrywide hunt for militants and seized a cache of arms and explosives stored there by suspected militants, police said. The elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force raided the Green Crescent Madrassa at a village near Bhola district town, 350 kilometres south of Dhaka, following an intelligence tip, a police officer told Reuters by telephone from the scene. "The raid is still continuing," said police inspector Muhammad Sohrab Ali. Two suspected militants from the madrassa were detained, he added. Police last week said militants had threatened the principals of several English-language schools if they did not pay "tolls". |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 What muslim charity doesn't fund militants? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-03-25 14:46 |