As the United Kingdom passed a landmark transparency reforms intended to crack down on criminals and bad actors seeking to exploit weaknesses in the country’s financial system to hide their identities and launder the proceeds of crime has already started giving “heart-attack” to the potential targets of this law, a nervous Shahid Uddin Khan, an Interpol-wanted terror funder, money-launderer and member of Dawood Ibrahim’s infamous D-Company that is involved in transnational drug and weapon trafficking activities alongside contract-killing – is reportedly seeking some “urgent measures” from his lawyer with the goal of fleeing to any other country from Britain once he falls under target of newly passed Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act.
According to ICIJ, The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, which passed into law on October 26, will make it harder to set up shell companies anonymously and to file false information about company ownership with UK authorities — a practice that has enabled several major scandals, including some documented by ICIJ.
In the ICIJ order it is stated that Companies House, the UK’s company registration agency, will be given powers to verify the identities and addresses of company directors, remove non-compliant or fraudulent firms from its register, and share information with criminal investigation agencies.
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act also includes legal reforms that will allow courts to quickly dismiss spurious lawsuits brought against journalists covering financial crime and corruption by the targets of their reporting. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPPs, have long been the focus of free-speech advocates who argue the lawsuits are used to intimidate journalists and deter legitimate public interest reporting.
The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition, a group of civil society organizations that lobbied for the changes, hailed the announcement as “a landmark moment,” while calling for similar protections for other types of journalism.
Interpol-wanted terror-funder Shahid Uddin Khan, a sacked officer of Bangladesh Army (Army No: BA002428, Course: 8-BMA, Commission Date: 10-06-1983), his wife and daughters entered Britain with millions of dirty cash.
Since 2009, British authorities have allowed this dangerous individual in residing in London by investing over US$15 million towards the so-called Golden Visa program, which has already allowed hundreds of criminals from around the world in taking refuge in England.
Connection between Dawood Ibrahim and Shahid Uddin Khan
In April 2021, Indian Navy seized drugs worth almost half-a-billion dollar from a Pakistani fishing boat in the Arabian sea. The fishing boat was coming from Pakistan’s Makran coastal region and it was later revealed that the sales proceeds of the drugs was supposed to be used in financing terrorist activities in India, Maldives and Sri Lanka. During the same month, Indian law enforcement agencies apprehended another Pakistani boat in the Arabian Sea and confiscated 30 kilograms of heroin.
Sri Lanka is known to be in the clutches of Pakistan drugs traffickers and evidently, the Sri Lanka Navy has reported them to the media. According to experts, Sri Lanka serves as a transshipment hub for heroin and cocaine trafficked into countries mainly within the South Asian region, while Lebanon is a key hub of transportation of drugs to various Western countries through transit in countries in the Middle East, Asia as well as South America and former Soviet republics.
In most of the cases of drug trafficking in the South Asian region and beyond, notorious mafia don Dawood Ibrahim and his D Company are directly involved, while this racket actively collaborates with Pakistani espionage agency ISI. According to media reports, several years ago, at the instructions of Pakistani ISI, Dawood Ibrahim formed a nexus with an individual named Shahid Uddin Khan who is a fugitive convict and sacked officer of Bangladesh Army for running drug trade as well as dealing in counterfeit Indian currency notes. Shahid Uddin Khan has been convicted by Bangladeshi courts on allegations of terror financing and dealing in arms, counterfeit currency and IED making materials. He also is accused of funding Islamic State (ISIS).
Documents available with various intelligence agencies show, Shahid Uddin Khan hails from a radical Muslim family in Bangladesh while his wife Farjana Anjum too hails from similar family background. This couple’s daughters though are living and being educated in Britain are notoriously radicalized and are working as lone wolves. They have been targeting various individuals and trying to convert them into Islam. One of Shahid Uddin Khan’s daughters namely Parisa Pinaz Khan (Bangladeshi passport number AF6723557) maintain liaison with Pakistani ISI and terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.
In July 2019, it was reported in the media that a Pakistani national living in the United Kingdom was making frantic bids to prevent the extradition of Jabir Motiwala, a high-ranking member of the D-Company, a notorious transnational drugs trafficking and crime outfit of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim.
While reacting on the recent developments, when it was revealed that Dawood Ibrahim is currently living in Pakistan and enjoying full patronization of Inter Service Intelligence (ISI), Pakistani spy agency, Lawrence Sellin, a UN Army veteran and security expert tweeted, “Fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim is believed to be a key facilitator in Pakistani Inter Service Intelligence’s narco-terrorist-jihadi operations and linked to the Dehliwala Sri Lankan drug distribution center and possible funder of the Easter bombings”.
An underworld terrorist and criminal Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar was the mastermind and funder of the Mumbai bombings in which 257 people were killed and hundreds injured.
Several intelligence agencies have confirmed that Dawood Ibrahim is sheltered in Pakistan, wherefrom he is operating activities of D-Company through his aides. It may be mentioned here that D-Company has heavy presence in the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Dominica, Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia and some other countries.
At the instructions from the Pakistani spy agency, Dawood Ibrahim has been spending a significant portion of his income from the transnational drug trafficking towards terrorism and jihad. He and his gang members are actively working in expanding their footprint in the United Kingdom with the ulterior agenda of increasing Pakistan’s influence in that country. And Shahid Uddin Khan is playing key role in it.
