Additional: This stamp is listed in 1992 as that is the date of the first known use of the stamp on a cover.
Many rumours are repeated about this issue and the truth will probably never be known. The stamp was created to raise money for the Palestinian people, but not for terrorism. The Arabic word “mukatelin, which means”terrorist”, was printed on the stamp, rather than the word “mujahedin”, meaning “warrior”. The mistake was noticed by the Islamic Foundation, a government organization, after the stamps arrived from the Russian printer.
A proof exists on a card, with reverse bearing the signature Major (Rtd) A. M. Chowdhury, Director Mails, B P O, dated 3 November 1987 and has the official rubber stamped seal. What is interesting is that the date is 1987. The original artist’s drawing also exists.
At an undetermined date later, when the stamps were sent from the printer in Russia to the port in Chittagong, one of the packets of stamps was not accounted for. It has been said that the crate was opened and the packet missing. Another version is that the packet may have been misplaced and/or sent to the Comilla P.O. later.
The Government investigated the situation and allegedy gave two single copies of the stamp to a dealer in Dhaka for identification purposes. Later these were allegedly sold.
In 1990-91 the stamps were mistakingly sold at the post offices in the Comilla region and were genuinelly used for postage. Once aware of this, some collectors obtained some of the stamps and used them on “Philatelic” covers.
To date, the earliest known use of the stamp is on a philatelic cover dated 30 September 1992, on a BANGLAPEX ’92, SPECIAL COVER, with two of the Palestine stamps on it and cancelled at Dhaka, and the earliest known genuine use for postage purposes only, is 27 September 1992 , postmarked Comilla H.O.. At least five covers are known from post offices under the Barishal P.O. from November 1992. It seems more likely that if they were mistakingly sold at the Comilla post offices, the date was probably closer to the end of 1992, rather than 1990-91.
Thus, the possibility that the stamps were not really stolen needs to be considered.
On the other hand, sheets of the unissued stamps were fairly common in India. It seems logical that the packet could have been stolen at the port and many of the stamps sold to dealers outside the country. But again, many Bangladesh stamps are sold to Indian dealers near the Bangladesh/India border. These dealers are largely responsible for many of the non-Dacca (later Dhaka) cancelled First Day Covers that exist from that period.
The dealers in Bangladesh are now finding that this stamp is no longer readily available and those few sheets that are found are not in the best of condition.