The roots of terror funding

Hindustan Times

17-06-2025

For far too long, western powers and multilateral bodies have been found wanting in their efforts to ensure that Pakistan takes credible and irreversible action to prevent terrorist groups from functioning from its soil or raising funds for their activities across the region. This has included nations such as the US and its partners that have been directly affected by Pakistan-based terror groups. While Pakistan has been pushed to act against organisations and individuals — many of them sanctioned by the UN Security Council (UNSC) — after major terror attacks, Islamabad's crackdowns were invariably wound up once international focus receded. As a result, terrorists such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi have never been held to account for assaults such as the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s contention that an attack like the Pahalgam massacre cannot 'occur without money and the means to move funds between terrorist supporters' is significant in this context. India has made its case with bodies such as FATF and the UNSC's al-Qaeda-related sanctions committee about the need for renewed action against Pakistan-based terror groups — particularly the LeT and its front organisation, The Resistance Front, that was linked to the Pahalgam attack. FATF is correct in noting that the strategic use of financial intelligence is one of the most powerful instruments for dismantling terror financing networks. It is also correct in saying that no country or agency can single-handedly end terrorism. Over the years, India and its counter-terrorism partners have built a vast repository of intelligence on funding of Pakistan-based terror groups and their ability to exploit loopholes in Pakistan's measures against terror financing and money laundering.
The Pahalgam attack has become a trigger for India and its partners to consider a fresh move to get FATF to put Pakistan on its so-called 'grey list', which will lead to greater scrutiny of all its financial transactions. (Pakistan was on the FATF 'grey list' between 2018 and 2022). Sure, FATF, a technical body, has grown wary of allegations about its politicisation, but it should not be too difficult for India and its partners to present a fool-proof case against Pakistan. The International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other agencies too must take note and put Pakistan on notice for any possible diversion of their aid to sources that enable the strengthening of terrorist forces.