Pakistan national held with fake Indian currency in Bangladesh

Dhaka: Bangladesh police on Friday arrested six people including a Pakistani national for international currency smuggling and seized counterfeit Indian currency with a face value of Rs 1 crore from them, apart from forged currencies of half-a-dozen other countries.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) detained six people from different parts of the city and seized large amount of forged international currencies, as well as 21 passports.

"Counterfeit bills worth Indian Rs 1 crore, Bangladeshi Tk 624,000 and a huge amount of [Arab Emirates] dirham and Saudi riyal have been seized from those detained," Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of the RAB Media Wing, was quoted as saying by the BDnews.

"Besides, 21 expired passports and a number of forged seals used for human trafficking were found in their possession," he added.

In recent years, Bangladesh has emerged as a base for Pakistan's spy agency ISI for pumping counterfeit notes into India and the issue was identified as a high priority area for the two neighbouring countries.

In August, Bangladesh has assured India of full cooperation in tackling the menace of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN), which are also being used for funding human and drug trafficking and other nefarious activities in that country.

The two sides had also agreed to share intelligence inputs on operatives engaged in circulating fake notes on real time basis.