Man Arrested For Running Terror Orphanage

Mar 26, 2009 1 Comment ›› Pat Dollard

Times Online:

Police in Bangladesh have arrested on suspicion of terrorism a British man whose charity runs an orphanage that they say is a front for a training camp and arms factory for Islamic militants.

Dr Faisal Mostafa of Stockport, Greater Manchester, who was acquitted in 2002 of being part of an al-Qaeda bomb plot, was arrested yesterday in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, an officer involved in the case said.

Captain Shafiul Alam, of the Rapid Action Battalion, told The Times that Dr Mostafa, 45, who has a chemistry degree and a PhD in metals corrosion, was arrested along with his “agent” in Bangladesh, a Bangladeshi citizen identified only as Badl.

Faisal Mostafa, who was arrested today

“They were both arrested yesterday,” he said. “They are being charged with illegally keeping arms, explosives and ammunition, and with militancy and terrorism.”

The Rapid Action Battalion said that it discovered a suspected Islamic militant training camp and weapons factory in a raid on an orphanage run by Dr Mostafa’s charity, Green Crescent, on the remote southern island of Bhola on Tuesday.

Lieutenant-Colonel Munir Haque, another officer involved in the raid, said that his men found nine or 10 firearms, 3,000 rounds of ammunition and enough explosive for hundreds of grenades.

He also said that they found Islamic literature “in line with extremists like [Osama] bin Laden” and had arrested four people – a teacher and three caretakers.

The charity’s website, www.greencrescent.org, shows that it is involved in projects in Bhola, as well as several others around Bangladesh and at least one in Pakistan. The site says that the charity – registered in Britain under number 1099233 – was founded in 1998 by students in Britain and Bangladesh.

Dr Mostafa’s family have said that he set up the orphanage because of a humanitarian desire to help poor children.

Ghulam Mostafa, his father, has also said his son had enjoyed a life-long interest in hunting and that he manufactured his own ammunition using spent cartridges and gunpowder.

Dr Mostafa was acquitted in February 2002 of plotting with Moinul Abedin, also Bangladeshi-born, to cause explosions. Both were arrested in Birmingham. Abedin was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

They had been under surveillance by MI5 officers in an operation codenamed Large. Abedin was given the personal codename “Pivotal Dancer”.

MI5 regarded the Birmingham case as the first evidence of al-Qaeda activity in Britain. Since his acquittal in 2002 Dr Mostafa has remained a subject of interest to the security services.

He was acquitted of a similar explosives charge in 1996 after a trial at Manchester Crown Court, but he was found guilty of illegally possessing a firearm, sentenced to four years in prison and banned for life from possessing a firearm.

In July last year he was arrested at Manchester airport for trying to board an aircraft with a pistol in his suitcase. He checked in with the component parts of a gas-powered pistol and primers in his luggage as he and his family prepared to fly to Dubai.He claimed that it was to be used for hunting and fishing, and was given a suspended sentence.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “We are investigating reports of a man being arrested in Bangladesh. We cannot confirm it at this stage. We’re in contact with the Bangladeshi authorities and his family.”

The raid on the orphanage was part of a fresh crackdown on Islamic charities and NGOs that were set up when the opposition Bangladesh National Party was in power from 2001 to 2006, and ruled in coalition with Islamist parties.

Bangladeshi authorities believe Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a militant group linked to one of those Islamist parties, may have been involved in a mutiny by border guards last month, which killed more than 56 senior army officers.

JMB was banned in 2005 and blamed later that year for a series of bomb attacks. Bangladeshi security officials also said they suspected JMB was behind the operations at the orphanage.