Although Britain has started the process of deporting fake asylum-seekers from a number of countries in the world, including Bangladesh, several dangerous individuals including jihadist-terrorist, terror-funder, money-launderer and tax-evaders are yet to be included in the list. According to UK’s The Telegraph, nearly 11,000 Bangladeshis entered Britain on visas last year only to lodge asylum claims within 12 months in an attempt to stay permanently. Meanwhile, media reports said, Bangladesh and the UK have held their first-ever Joint Working Group meeting on Home Affairs in London at the British Home Office and signed the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on Returns.
According to a press release, the Bangladesh-UK SOPs on Returns is a successor to the earlier signed Bangladesh-EU SOPs of 2017, the procedure that used to be followed before the UK’s exit from the EU for returning Bangladeshi overstayers from the UK.
The migrants came on international student, worker or visitor visas in the year to March last year in an attempt to exploit a “back door” to Britain by claiming asylum. Just 5 per cent of Bangladeshis’ initial asylum claims are successful.
Now Michael Tomlinson, the Illegal Migration Minister, has signed a fast-track returns deal with Bangladesh to streamline the deportation of not only failed asylum seekers but also foreign national offenders and individuals who have overstayed their visas.
The returns agreement will streamline the returns process by removing a mandatory interview for cases where there is good supporting evidence for removal.
The returns deal was agreed at the first joint UK-Bangladesh working group on home affairs in London this week. Both countries committed to strengthening their partnership and intensifying cooperation on economic, cultural and social issues.
Tomlinson said: “Speeding up removals is a vital part of our plan to stop people coming or staying here illegally. Bangladesh is a valued partner and it is fantastic that we are bolstering our ties with them on this and a range of other issues.
“We have already seen clear evidence that these agreements have a significant impact on illegal migration. Global issues require global solutions and I look forward to working with Bangladesh and other partners to create a fairer system for all”.
The Telegraph said, official documents – leaked last month and covering the year to March 2023 – show a record 21,525 asylum claims were made by visa holders, a 154 per cent annual rise.
It means one in every 140 people who entered on a visa went on to claim asylum. During the past decade, more than 102,000 applied to stay after being allowed in only temporarily.
Pakistan was the largest nationality among claimants, with nearly 17,400 cases, followed by Bangladesh at 11,000, India (7,400), Nigeria (6,600) and Afghanistan (6,000).
Meanwhile, Europe’s leading and most influential multimedia news outlet EuroNews through an exclusive report titled – ‘Cryptocurrency, drugs, money laundering: a Hungarian thread in the funding of Hamas’ has exposed dangerous activities of Zulkarnain Saer Sami, alias Zulkarnain Saer, alias Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami alias Tanvir Md. Sadat, who after being deported from Hungary landed in the United Kingdom and sought asylum has been funding and promoting pro-Hamas and anti-Israel and anti-Israel rallies in London has turned into a potential threat to Britain’s national security while in the recent past this jihadist terrorist threatened to behead a Hindu rights activist and professor Kushal Baran Chakraborty in Chittagong, Bangladesh and termed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a “terrorist group”, gave instigation against Hindus and branded RSS leaders as “top terrorists”.
This notorious jihadist terrorist has been plotting attacks on Israeli embassy as well as Jewish synagogues, homes and business establishments, while he also reportedly is plotting attacks on Jewish community members in Britain.
According to Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium (TRAC), which is one of the most comprehensive compendiums of information and analysis of terrorist groups and activities in the world, jihadist Zulkarnain Saer Khan threatened to behead a Hindu rights activist and professor Kushal Baran Chakraborty in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami alias Tanvir Md. Sadat was bearing Bangladeshi passport number EG0092902 (date of issue May 22, 2020). His birth ID number is 19830007842012539. Sami also possesses 3 more Bangladeshi passports number B1765649, BJ050260, AC5075647. His driving license number is DK-0014714L00009. His Hungarian ID card number is 000529284. His second wife’s name is Aditia Firoza Khan, Passport number BJ0520244.
Despite the fact that the father’s name of Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami alias Tanvir Md. Sadat is Mohammed Abdul Baset Khan., in his passports Sami has on-purpose changed his father’s name to “Colonel Wasit Khan” with the ulterior motive of dodging law enforcing agencies from getting hold of his criminal records.
Prior to fleeing Bangladesh for Hungary, Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami alias Tanvir Md. Sadat was arrested on July 21, 2006 in Bangladesh on charges of cheating local businessmen under false identity of an officer of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite force of Bangladesh Police. He robbed several mobile phones from the local businessmen and even wrote a false cheque as payment. A criminal case number 43, dated 21.07.2006 was lodged against him under sections 140, 170, 171, 419, 465, 467, 469 and 472 of the Bangladesh Penal Code.
During his stay in Bangladesh, Zulkarnain Saer Sami was also involved in drug peddling. Since he landed in the United Kingdom and sought asylum, Sami is running human trafficking business by bringing-in illegal migrants to England via English Channel while he is selling forged documents to fake asylum-seekers.
Another source said, in the United Kingdom, one of the main sources of income of Zulkarnain Sami is money-laundering and illegal hawala business which he is running through his company ‘SAMS INC LTD’. Company number of ‘SAMS INC LTD’ is 14411356. Registered office address of this company is: Kemp House, 160 City Road, London, United Kingdom EC1V 2NX.
Sharing a report of a local newspaper on January 28, 2024 about the visit of a five-member parliamentary delegation led by Paul Scully MP, former Conservative Minister for Tech and Digital Economy; Virendra Sharma MP, Vice Chair of All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Bangladesh and Chair of APPG on Indo-British; Neil Coyle MP, Member of UK House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs; Andrew Western MP, Opposition Whip at the House of Commons; and Dominic Moffitt, Senior Parliamentary Assistant at House of Commons – Zulkarnain Saer Sami wrote “this is a trickster delegation”. Sami’s Facebook account is filled with pro-Islamist, pro-jihadist, anti-Semite, anti-India and anti-Hindu posts.
Meanwhile, another convicted terrorist, money-launderer and tax-evader named Shahid Uddin Khan has been living in the United Kingdom since 2017 as an asylum-seeker and continuing numerous types of illegal activities, including money-laundering, drug and arms trafficking, terror-funding and financial fraud.
According to newspaper reports, Md. Shahid Uddin Khan and members of his family had smuggled-out millions of dollars from Bangladesh since 2009 and deposited into various bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates. This family also has purchased immigrant status in Britain under Visa Tier 1, VAF Number 511702, and invested over 12 million pounds, while the entire amount had been dirty money. They also established a company named Zumana Investment & Properties Limited, Incorporation certificate number 0741417, dated October 25, 2010. The registered office of this company is located at Unit 29 Eleanor Street, London, E3 4UR, United Kingdom.
Sitting in Britain, Md. Shahid Uddin Khan and his family are operating their businesses in Dubai [in United Arab Emirates]. According to newspaper reports, this family is having business relations with notorious Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company and has been involved in trafficking in drugs and arms.
On January 17, 2019, the Dhaka (Bangladesh) residence of this family was raided by the members of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Bangladesh Police. During this raid, a huge volume of arms, ammunition, detonators, explosives, counterfeit currency note, Islamic State propaganda materials, and recruitment tools. In the seized documents, CTTC also found evidence of the Khan family’s involvement in terror financing.
Three separate cases were lodged on the same day with the Cantonment Police Station in this regard against Md. Shahid Uddin Khan, Farjana Anjum Khan, Shehtaz Munasi Khan, and Parisa Pinaz Khan. These include, CR case number 4466/2009, dated December 30, 2009, under section 416, 467, 471 and 109 of the Bangladesh Penal Code, which is under trial with the Court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate; Case number 10, dated January 17, 2019, under section 6 (2), 7, 11 and 12 of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009; Case number 11, dated January 17, 2019, under section 25/A of the Special Powers Act of 1974; and Case number 12, dated January 17, 2019, under section 19/A of the Arms Act of 1878.
It was earlier reported that Md. Shahid Uddin Khan sent few thousand dollars to one of his jihadist counterpart days before the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka.
According to British paper The Sunday Times, Khan has donated £20,000 to the Conservative party [Tory Party] and has lived in the UK capital since 2009, when he bought a multimillion-pound “golden visa” to ensure he and his family could stay in the country.
Back in June 2019, India’s leading newspaper The Business Standard in a report said, country’s intelligence agencies were probing a deep-rooted nexus involving underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and a London-based former Colonel [Shahid Uddin Khan] of the Bangladesh army. The agencies suspect that the Bangladeshi army officer, allegedly involved in gun running, has links with Dawood Ibrahim’s underworld activities operating from India’s eastern borders.
It said, what prompted the intelligence agencies to probe the nexus between Dawood and the Bangladeshi army officer was a report published in a leading British daily recently. On May 25, British newspaper The Sunday Times, in an exclusive report, revealed that a former Colonel Md Shahid Uddin Khan had been charged with funding terror groups, arms dealing and money laundering offences in Bangladesh. According to the British newspaper, the former Colonel has political links in Britain and had funded an MP.
Sources told IANS news agency that the former Bangladeshi Colonel migrated to London in 2009 under mysterious circumstances. He is said to have had business operations in Dubai as well as in Britain. As per the latest dossier on the Dawood Ibrahim gang, the D company is involved in smuggling Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) and contraband narcotics. The illegal activities are being operated from Nepal and Bangladesh.
Quoting IANS, The Business Standard further said, Indian intelligence agencies were probing the nexus between D company and the former Bangladeshi Colonel relating to fake currency and arms dealing. One of the houses of the former Bangladeshi Colonel in Dhaka was raided in January 2019 by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the Bangladesh police. Incriminating documents are said to have been found from ex-Colonel’s place in the raids. IANS made several attempts to approach Md Shahid Uddin in London, but could not make contact with him till the filing of the story.
On the other hand, British journalist Tom Harper, the Home Affairs correspondent for The Sunday Times, who exposed the role of the colonel in his exclusive story, has said in one of his tweets that former Colonel (Md Shahid Uddin) Khan had bought two houses with alleged laundered money, was charged after counter-terror police found arms, fake currency and Jihadist material from his home in Bangladesh.
