India counters Pakistan's claim at FATF, gives evidence of terror financing

At the ongoing seven-day Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting in Brisbane, India has conveyed its strong objection to global body for clearing Pakistan's name from the grey list of countries indulging in money laundering and financing terrorism.

At the FATF meeting that has been called to choke off funding to terrorist organisations such as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al Qaeda, India according to government sources, has contested Pakistan's claims of taking strong action against terror groups and its financing cartels and syndicates.

Giving point by point rebuttal to the documents of action taken submitted by Pakistan earlier, India contested that its western neighbour has virtually done nothing to control both money laundering and terror financing and its counterfeit currency machinery producing fake Indian currency is still intact and flourishing.

Well prepared to demolish Pakistan's claims, the Indian team is reported to have submitted evidence at the FATF to prove that what Pakistan earlier submitted to the global body was all hogwash and that it should again be placed in the grey list of countries.

Pakistan's name from the grey list of terror financiers that contained adverse remarks about Islamabad since February 2012 was cleared by the FATF in February this year at its plenary meeting in Paris where it welcomed Pakistan's "significant progress" in improving its anti money laundering and combating financing of terror (AML/CFT) regime had taken and took Pakistan out of its monitoring process.

Noting that Pakistan has established the legal and regulatory framework to meet its commitments regarding strategic deficiencies that the FATF had identified in June 2010, the FATF also decided that Pakistan will work with Asia Pacific Group on money laundering (APG-ML) as it continues to address the full range of AML/CFT issues identified in its mutual evaluation report, in particular, fully implementing UNSC Resolution 1267.

Rebutting Pakistan's claim that it had frozen the bank accounts of JuD, India has placed evidence that the outfit was operating through an offshoot Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation Pakistan (FIF) and was involved in raising terror funds for Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Other evidence that counter Pakistan's claims include, Muhammad Iqbal, founding member of FIF, being put on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) by the United States in August 2014. Iqbal had made the payment to purchase Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) used by Mumbai attackers on 26/11.

As early as on June 18, JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, who is on the most wanted terrorist list, had attended FIF meeting that clearly shows that the so-called ban is a hogwash and there has been no change in Pakistan's stand on terrorism which is being promoted as earlier, sources said.