A Pakistani national was arrested yesterday morning from Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka city, with allegedly fake Indian currency worth Rs50 lakh in his possession.
The customs officials detained Abdur Rahim, 35, at the canopy area of the airport and found the currency in his luggage, said Hossain Ahmed, commissioner of the Customs Department at the airport. He said they suspected the notes to be fake.
“We cannot confirm whether they are real or fake without verification,” he said. Sources at the airport said Rahim arrived in Dhaka on July 7 on a Qatar Airways flight but left the airport without his luggage. He was arrested when he went to collect his luggage at the airport yesterday.
The customs officials said they had been trying to identify Rahim’s associates in Bangladesh.
Earlier on June 30, two Pakistani nationals were arrested with fake Indian currency worth Rs1.71 crore right after they arrived at Dhaka airport.
In the past few years, Customs have arrested around 60 Pakistanis with around Rs200 crore worth of fake Indian currency in their possession, according to sources in the Customs Department, CID, Detective Branch, Rab and intelligence agencies.
Most of the arrested belong to different militant organisations active in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, such as Jama’atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, the sources said.Indian currency is usually forged in Pakistan mainly for the purpose of financing militants.
