Terrorist activities thrive on frugal funding. Contemporary terrorism centered round specific geographical area encompasses specific social segment. Terrorist organizations raise huge funds, and countries around the world with capability of producing highly sophisticated and advanced weaponry as well as communication and other gadgets, are too willing to find markets for their products. Those who are facilitating the terrorist organizations in procuring sophisticated weaponry with considerable ease and without hassles are as much responsible for proliferating terrorism as those who fund the terrorists. All this overt and covert funding is possible, thanks to immense petro-dollar booty emerging from the oil-rich regions of Asian Continent. Monopolization of oil reserves makes it very difficult to impose strict restrictions on movement of petro-dollar booty from country to country, organization to organization and individual to individual. This is the reason why the G-20 countries, in their recent meeting at Anatoly in Turkey, passed a 9-point resolution on containing terrorism and specifically laid stress on drying the funding sources for the terrorist organizations.
Foreign-based terrorist organizations operating in India are extensively using hawala as well as banking channel for funding terrorist outfits in the country. The police have registered many hawala cases and cases of clandestine import of foreign currency. Considering that eradication of the menace of terrorism presupposes drying up of funding sources, the G-20 has stressed on all countries to ensure choking of all funding sources for the terrorist organizations. Long back in 1989, an inter-governmental body by the name Financial Action Task Force (FATF) came into being. India, along with other nations like the US, France, Germany and the United Kingdom became its active members. The body is mandated to set global protocols and standards to combat money laundering and other financial crimes with direct ramifications to terrorist acts across the globe. It conducted a mid-session review of various countries including India and economic powers of the world in the wake of increased activities of dreaded terrorist group, ISIS, around the globe. Taking a renewed initiative of fact-finding process on global threat of terrorist financing, FATF examined whether all jurisdictions in the global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing network have implemented key measures to cut off terrorism-related financial flows, in accordance with the FATF recommendations. About India, it states that she has frozen assets worth Euro 3 lakh (over Rs 2.12 crore) till August 15 this year, of over three dozen entities on charges of terrorist financing and money laundering of illicit funds. In related findings for India, the FATF in a report brought out last month, chronicled the use of banking channels to fund the activities of the banned terror group Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM). The group has carried out many attacks and killings in the country especially Kashmir Valley. The global body, quoting official submissions made by Indian investigators to it, said the HM raised over Rs 80 crore in the last eight years for “furthering terror activities” in India. Report says that funds raised in other countries are transferred or diverted to trusts and front organizations of HM in Pakistan. On reaching India, the money is distributed through various conduits at various places to the active terrorists and families of killed HM terrorists. The report further alleges that the banking sector was extensively used for transfer of funds to various bank accounts for the aforementioned activities.
Ever since JKLF began armed insurgency in Kashmir, and other Pakistan based outfits like Hizbul Mujahideen, LeT et al took over after sidelining JKLF, back in early 90s, India has been repeatedly accusing Pakistan of facilitating funding of the terrorists. It has also provided evidence to this effect. Pakistani, PoK and Kashmiri Diasporas in UK, USA and other western countries, besides the Gulf States, have been remitting huge amounts to terrorist organizations in Pakistan for clandestine transmission to the terrorists operating in Kashmir and other parts of India. However, Pakistan, extensively drawing on denial policy, has been refuting the charges leveled by India. Now that G-20 has brought a resolution demanding all countries to stop clandestine activities of fund raising for the terrorist organizations, it remains to be seen whether Pakistan will respond to this resolution. It has to be emphasized that many fake trusts, charity organizations and NGOs have been floated in Kashmir and other parts of the country that have become the conduit for transferring funds to the terrorists. There has to be a mechanism so that all trusts and charity organizations are subjected to strict scrutiny that they are not engaged in clandestine transactions. Maybe there is the need of making more stringent laws to combat clandestine funding of terrorist organizations.
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