A Pakistani High Commission staffer in Bangladesh was asked to leave the country after being found indulging in terror financing including circulating Fake Indian Currency Notes, senior officials said today.
Based on intelligence reports, the Sheikh Hasina government asked Pakistan to remove Mohammad Mazhar Khan, non-diplomat attache at the consular section of the High Commission in Dhaka, after his involvement in terror financing and currency forgery racket was found.
"The Pakistani High Commission here notified us today that the official already left Dhaka on January 31 along with his family members," a Bangladeshi foreign ministry spokesman told PTI.
He said Dhaka earlier informed Islamabad that their non-diplomat attache was found to be involved in forgery of Indian currency believed to be used for terror financing and demanded his immediate removal.
Khan had set up a wide network of producing and distributing fake Indian currency and in collaboration with some colleagues at the High Commission used to channel the money earned through his currency scam to terror groups like Hizb ut-Tahir, Ansarullah Bangla Team and Jamaat-e-Islami, foreign Ministry officials were quoted as saying by The Daily Star.
The Pakistani staffer left Dhaka with his family after the foreign ministry, instead of going for harsher measures like deportation, asked Islamabad to withdraw him in a week, officials said.
The newspaper quoted a senior diplomat at the Pakistan High Commission as saying, "We have nothing to say on the matter. Whatever response would come would be from our foreign affairs spokesperson."
Khan came under scanner following a confessional statement by a Bangladeshi citizen, Mujibur Rahman, who told a Dhaka court that the Pakistani staffer was directly involved in collecting and smuggling fake Indian currency.
An intelligence agency took the lead and probed to unearth that Mujibur and another Bangladeshi Jalil Akhter, both close contacts of Khan, took part in counterfeit Indian currency collection, its distribution at home and smuggling to India.
Citing intelligence report, the newspaper said Khan had close ties also with some ex-army and police officers, some teachers of Dhaka University and other universities, officers of Pakistan International Airlines, businessmen and a section of Bangladeshi nationals residing in bordering areas of Lalmonirhat, Thakurgaon, Jessore and Benapole.
Bangladeshi nationals having links with Khan were engaged in the activities of various militant organisations in the country, the intelligence report said.
