Ansar Al Islam raised Tk 18 lakh through crowdfunding

Ansar Al Islam, a militant group inspired by al-Qaeda, has raised Tk 18 lakh through crowdfunding within a few months.

In the name of sending aid to the victims in Palestine, the outfit made Facebook posts mentioning mobile financial service accounts.

In the last two months, Ansar Al Islam raised the money after launching a platform called "Deen Islam Foundation" on Facebook.

This move was made after al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) late last year called upon the Bangladeshi citizens to provide assistance to Palestinian people.

Officials of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit disclosed this to The Daily Star recently.

The government banned Ansar Al Islam in March 2017.

On Saturday, the CTTC unit claimed to have arrested three operatives of Ansar Al Islam for collecting money under the banner of Deen Islam Foundation.

A team of the CTTC's counterterrorism investigation wing picked up Shakil Ahmed, 21, Fardin Ahmed Mirdul, 22, and Rayhan Hosain, 26, from the capital's Wari.

On the same day, the CTTC unit filed a case with Wari Police Station against the three under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Speaking to this newspaper, Jahidul Hoque Talukder, deputy commissioner of the DMP at the CTTC unit, said the arrestees had been involved in raising funds for the outfit. They gave false information like sending aid to Palestine, or Rohingya community, he added.

The CTTC unit later produced the arrestees before a Dhaka court seeking 10-day remand for each. The court, however, granted three-day demand.

There is no evidence indicating that Ansar Al Islam has sent funds for the Palestinian people.

— Ahamedul Islam Deputy commissioner of DMP

Yesterday, a Dhaka court sent the three arrestees to jail.

According to the primary investigation report submitted to the court, the arrestees admitted their involvement in Ansar Al Islam and the coordinators of Deen Islam Foundation. The outfit remains active on different online platforms, including social media, with the aim to recruit new operatives.

The arrestees said four to five other Ansar Al Islam operatives were also involved in fund raising, reads the report.

Deen Islam Foundation opened its Facebook page on April 19, 2022, and it has already attracted some 9,700 followers. These is a link of its website on the Facebook page, but The Daily Star could not access the website on Tuesday. There are two mobile phone numbers listed on the page, but both of those phones were found switched off.

A high official of the CTTC unit said that the foundation is not a registered platform.

"During interrogation, the arrestees could not provide information about the destination of the money. The statements regarding the transfer of the money were inconsistent," the official told this newspaper requesting anonymity.

In March this year, The SecDev Foundation, a Canadian NGO, in its monthly digital harms report said that AQIS in a digital booklet called upon the Bangladeshi Muslims to fund "the ongoing Palestine war".

"The booklet provided a detailed calculation of how Hamas had to spend Tk 100 crore to launch 12,000 rockets during October-December. They called it a real shame that the war is being funded and supported by Shite Iran and asked Muslims to send donations to the global jihad frontiers," reads the report.

"The group likely has already increased its fundraising inside the country," the report added.

The SecDev Foundation works globally to help at-risk people and organisations use digital technologies more safely and effectively.

Ahamedul Islam, deputy commissioner of the DMP at the CTTC unit, said there is no evidence indicating that Ansar Al Islam has sent funds for the Palestinian people.

"Collecting funds in the name of Jakat, building mosques, and aid for Qurbani is a common practice of the militant outfit. Some funds also came from abroad," he told The Daily Star.

In September 2022, the CTTC had found that Ansar Al Islam received about Tk 1.5 crore from people in the UK and Australia for carrying out its activities.

Ahamedul said the banned militant outfit is trying to make a comeback, and it has adopted the crowdfunding tactic to dodge the law enforcers.

"We have already stepped up vigilance and taking lawful action," he added.