Sagar Biswas :
Pakistan on Wednesday withdrew its second secretary [political] of Bangladesh mission Fareena Arshad for her alleged involvement in financing banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahedin Bangladesh [JMB] and running counterfeit currency racket.
When contacted, Foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul Haque told The New Nation last night, “Yes she has already left Dhaka. The Foreign Ministry has issued a media statement elaborating the matter.”
Officials of Ministry of Foreign Affairs [MOFA] said the Pak diplomat Fareena Arshad was forced to leave Dhaka following ‘informal pressure’ by Bangladesh government after allegations of terror financing and running currency forgery racket were raised against her. Dhaka contacted Islamabad to inform the activities of Fareena Arshad after getting full-fledged intelligence report. The Bangladesh government also asked the Pakistan High Commission to withdraw her, who was alleged to be an agent of her country’s secret service Inter Service Intelligence [ISI] of Pakistan.
“She [Fareena] was withdrawn when Bangladesh government started giving informal pressure on Pakistan. Earlier, the government high-ups were informed that she had been maintaining a ‘covert link’ with the militants in coordination with ISI,” a Foreign Ministry official said preferring to remain anonymous.
SS Immigration at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport said that Fareena left Dhaka boarding a PIA [Pakistan International Airlines] flight at about 1:35 pm yesterday.
According to police, a team of detectives on November 29 arrested four JMB militants including a Pakistan-born terrorist Idris Sheikh, Md Maqbul Sharif, Mohammad Salam and Md Mostafa Zaman conducting operation in the city’s Khilgaon and Uttara areas.
Idris Sheikh during interrogation confessed to the detectives that several militant leaders, including JMB top brass kept close connection with ‘a female diplomat’ of Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka.
Joint Commissioner, Detective and Criminal Intelligence Division, Monirul Islam said, “Idris and Maqbul [two of the four arrestees] had obtained Pakistani passports. They travelled to Pakistan with regular intervals. We also seized a spy mobile phone from Idris. He exchanged information with the members of a foreign intelligence through the mobile phone. Idris had hot link with a female diplomat at Pakistan High Commission.”
Later, the detectives revealed that the female diplomat was Fareena Arshad, who had been administering the militants’ network and gang of counterfeit currency smugglers with an intention to create instability in Bangladesh.
Fareena, fluent in English, Urdu and Bangla, trapped some government high officials, businessmen and physicians in Bangladesh. She was almost close to her target before her identity unveiled by one of her close mates, the police sources said.
The detective official said Idris saved a foreign number in the mobile phone as his own number. The foreign number is actually used by one Captain Washim, who is an agent of ISI, assigned in an important airport of his country.
When Idris was produced before the court, he said: “I was introduced with Fareena through an ISI agent in Dhaka named Kamal. After staying long 22 years in Pakistan, I returned to Bangladesh last year and started business of ticketing and visa processing. Later, I had met one Pakistani citizen named Babul.”
“I owed a huge amount of money from Babul for purchasing tickets from me almost often. At one stage, Babul went back to Pakistan and gave me the cell number of Fareena Arshad. Once Fareena gave me Tk 30, 000 as a part payment and she dropped me from Baitul Mokarram to Fakirapool by a magenta colour private car,” Idris also told the court.
Earlier on February 3, assistant visa officer of Pakistan High Commission Mazhar Khan was expelled from Dhaka in the face of strong protest following his alleged involvement in terror financing and counterfeit currency business.
Banani police arrested him on January 12 with one of his accomplices Mujibur Rahman while having a secret meeting. But he was released when a Pakistani diplomat Samina Mahtab intervened.
Mujibur Rahman, who remained in police custody, divulged some details of his currency forgery racket, and as per his information the police arrested four Pakistani as suspected militants in November from Chittagong.
