Bangladesh is set to pass a law clamping down on the financing of militants suspected of planning attacks, a senior bank official said today.The Muslim nation has suffered a wave of bombings in recent months, including suicide attacks, and police blame Islamist militants for the violence.‘‘The new law will empower the central bank to suspend or stop operations of any account, for 30 days, in suspicious transactions without any notice,’’ said Nazmul Hasan, an executive director of the Central Bangladesh Bank.‘‘Now the central bank will be able to detect and curb international terror financing, if any, in the country as well as local terror financing,’’ Nazmul said.He said the law had already been approved by Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman and would soon come into affect. It will be submitted to parliament through the Law Ministry, and has a strong chance of being passed because the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party holds a two-thirds majority in the legislature.Under the law, owners of accounts used to finance militant attacks faced seven years in jail, Nazmul said.The new law would replace existing anti-money laundering legislation, which did not have sufficient provisions to curb financing of militant activities, he said.It would also allow the central bank to set up a Financial Intelligence Unit and a Financial Crime Investigation and Prosecution Office.At least 30 people have been killed and 150 wounded in suicide bomb attacks across the country since August 17. Authorities have blamed outlawed Islamist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen of being involved. Media reports, quoting intelligence sources, said a number of Islamic Non-Government Organisations, mostly based in the Middle East, provided money. —PTI
