In London’s posh home, a UK barrister Shehtaz Munasi Khan is living a fabulously luxurious life with her sisters, mother, and father, an ex-military officer from Bangladesh who has laundered millions of dirty cash and been actively involved in a series of dangerous activities, including terror-finance. Barrister Khan’s father, Shahid Uddin Khan shares his photographs with several Tory Party leaders, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, while according to The Sunday Times, Khan, an ex-Colonel of Bangladesh Army is funding Tories.
Indian newspaper The Business Standard said , the agencies suspect that the Bangladeshi army officer, allegedly involved in gun running, has links with Dawood Ibrahim’s underworld activities. Quoting sources, it further said 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 cartel, the D company is involved in smuggling Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) and contraband narcotics.
In recent weeks, an YouTube and Facebook-based outlet namely ‘Nagorik TV’ came up with a couple of reports bringing serious allegations against a Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury stating he has swindled an individual, been involved in the porn film industry, militancy and even went further by attempting to grab a property of an elderly woman named Shahana Rashid Sanu . In Bangladesh, ‘Nagorik TV’ is flagged as a pro-Islamist and anti-government “propaganda vessel” which is operated from Canada and the US. Ex-Colonel Shahid Uddin Khan is one of the key funders of it. But there are far greater accusations against him!
Since 2009, Shahid Uddin Khan was making tons of money by forming alliances with an infamous Ponzi scheme namely ‘Destiny Group ’, which has reportedly swindled hundreds of millions of dollars from Bangladeshi people through numerous scam projects. UK barrister’s father Khan, who claims to be an honest individual with a “very clean past” was living a lower-middle-class life in a tiny rented apartment in Dhaka city even in 2008. He got hold of Aladdin’s magic lamp in 2009 when we became a partner of ‘Destiny Group’ and succeeded in emerging into a fabulously wealthy person depositing tons of dirty cash in local bank accounts and buying expensive properties and vehicles as if he became the Pablo Escobar of Bangladesh all on a sudden. He had access to plenty of powerful individuals and was considered someone next to god. And he became ruthless with people who would attempt to obstruct his illegal activities. Khan’s Bangladeshi version of “Medellín Cartel” would not spare anyone – even not the media.
Mass-swindling activities of ‘Destiny Group’ started feeling challenged when a Bangladeshi newspaper named Blitz began exposing its scams through a series of investigative reports. This made Bangladeshi Pablo Escobar Shahid Uddin Khan violently furious and he ordered his second-in-command Sajjad Hussain to file a false case of fraud against Blitz editor Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury. Khan’s unstoppable influence at that time forced a Dhaka police station to immediately register a criminal case against Choudhury and pick him up from his residence at the very late hours of the night.
Immediately after he was placed inside the lockup of a police station, Shahid Uddin Khan sent his men to take photographs of Choudhury in handcuffs and he had asked the officer-in-charge of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB-1) headquarters to arrange another photo session, although as per rules, such acts were totally illegal. But, Shahid Uddin Khan actually was having a different plot. He had hired some RAB members to terminate Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury before he would be produced in the court of law. In the daytime, when Choudhury was being sent to court, two RAB men in motorbikes were chasing the vehicle as they were hired to assassinate this journalist .
In the case, Sajjad Hussain claimed Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is his business partner who has cheated 7.9 million takas with false business promises. But in reality, Hussain was no business partner of Choudhury. Nothing. There was no agreement, no evidence to prove his claim. But Shahid Uddin Khan’s influence and black money were enough to get the journalist arrested on such vague and totally false allegations – just because, at the time Khan was the Pablo Escobar of Bangladesh having access to influential individuals, law enforcement agencies, and even the judiciary.
But things started moving in the opposite direction when some extremely influential people in Bangladesh started realizing, Shahid Uddin Khan was using their names for his illegal activities and even was secretly conspiring against the government and bringing the country under his own rule. As things came under the radars of Bangladeshi intelligence agencies, Shahid Uddin Khan fled the country in 2018 and landed in the UK, where he had already built his second empire with sacks filled with dirty cash, which were smuggled from Bangladesh via Dubai. Meanwhile, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury got released from prison after serving an entire period of imprisonment in the false case filed by Sajjad Hussain . Subsequently, based on a secret tip-off, the Dhaka home of Khan was raided by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Bangladesh Police while a large volume of explosives, weapons, jihadist propaganda materials, and counterfeit Bangladeshi and Indian currency bills were seized. Several cases were filed against Shahid Uddin Khan, his wife Farzana Anjum Khan, and their daughters, including UK barrister Shehtaz Munasi Khan.
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None of the accused appeared before the trial courts nor did they send their lawyers. As the allegations were proved beyond doubt, courts handed life-term imprisonment to Khan and his wife, while their daughter was handed rigorous imprisonments ranging between 3-5 years. Since then the ‘Pablo Escobar of Bangladesh ‘ turned furious at Bangladesh authorities and Blitz editor Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury. He began propaganda targeting them through social media and finally instructed members of ‘Nagorik TV’, a woman named Shahana Rashid, who reportedly is his distant cousin, and her sons to publicly vilify Choudhury and harass him. Subsequently, Shahana Rashid Sanu, who is accused of having direct connections with anti-Bangladesh elements and militancy groups lodged a false case under Digital Security Act (DSA) against the Blitz editor. Meanwhile, ‘Nagorik TV’ and family members of Shahana prepared a report against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury accusing him of fraud, producing porn films, involvement in militancy, and attempting of grabbing the properties of various individuals including that of Shahana Rashid Sanu.
About allegations of fraud, they used the reference to the false case filed by Shahid Uddin Khan’s man Sajjad Hussain. They did not bring evidence against allegations of producing porn films, involvement in militancy, and attempt of grabbing properties as there is no such allegations had ever been raised against Mr. Choudhury even by his hard critics and foes.
Sitting in the United States, the people behind ‘Nagorik TV’ has been running a series of vile and outrageously false propaganda against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury with the attempt of harassing this internationally acclaimed multi-award-winning anti-militancy journalist, despite the fact that the US Congress in 2007 had passed a bipartisan resolution (HR-64) by 409 votes in defense of Mr. Choudhury, where the Congress had categorically called for refraining from all forms of harassment tactics of him. Meaning, ‘Nagorik TV’ has violated and disrespected the US Congress which is tantamount to contempt of it.
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On December 14, 2003, The New York Times , commenting on Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury in an editorial wrote:
“Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a Muslim editor, and commentator in Bangladesh has a rare virtue — he champions dialogue and decency in a culture hemmed in by extremism and corruption”.
We in The Eastern Herald while echoing what The New York Times said would like to further add, while it is the responsibility of the government of Bangladesh to investigate the ‘Nagorik TV’ content against Mr. Choudhury and take due legal actions against the perpetrators of this dangerous propaganda stuff; it also is the responsibility of the authorities in Britain and the US to investigate the cases of Shahid Uddin Khan and ‘Nagorik TV ’. But Shahid Uddin Khan is now openly pimping himself as an insider of the Tories and even British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, can the British law enforcement agencies and the media show the courage of standing in favor of justice and truth and strongly defend Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury?
