Pakistan is on the verge of freeing itself from the shackles of the world anti-money-laundering body, a development which is bound to cause anger in New Delhi. India, which has been the target of terrorism originating in Pakistan, is dismayed that countries which profess to be friendly to New Delhi are willy-nilly sending Islamabad the signal that they countenance illicit activities that fund terror.
In preparation for the meeting of the Financial Action Task Force in Paris, Pakistan’s Minister of State For Foreign Affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar, will travel to the French capital on Sunday.
“Pakistan’s alleged compliance is only an eye-wash,” a senior Indian official told News18. “The terror camps still exist in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. And the madrasas are still operating on the Jihad model.”
News18 has been consistently reporting on the terror activities from across the border. In July, News18 had reported how facilitated by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), terror camps are being run in three clusters of the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) region. Top intelligence sources also recently told News18 that ISI is trying to push in as many as terrorists as possible in Kashmir before winters to prove to the world that the Valley is “unstable”.
Being put on the Grey List means the country cannot control money-laundering and terror-financing operations and is put under increased monitoring by FATF, an inter-governmental body. The FATF will meet in Paris from October 18 to 21. Pakistan is expected to submit a response to the FATF’s objections regarding the non-sustainable implementation of the 11 conditions of the Asia-Pacific Group.
THE GREY LIST
Being on the Grey List restricts a country?s access to the international trade and financial system.
The country can face difficulty in getting loans from multilateral organisations like International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Being on the FATF grey list is a warning to the countries to take corrective measures, failing which they will be moved to the stringent ‘FATF Black List’.
Apart from Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Myanmar, Philippines, South Sudan, Uganda, and Yemen are among the 23 countries on the list. Pakistan has been on the FATF Grey List continuously since June 2018.
The FATF was established in July 1989 by a G-7 Summit in Paris, initially to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering. After the 9/11 attacks in the US, the FATF in October 2001 expanded its mandate to incorporate efforts to combat terrorist financing, and in April 2012, it added efforts to counter the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
THE 11 CONDITIONS
The 11 conditions of the FATF that Pakistan claims it has complied with are:
INDIA’s RESPONSE
Sources said India has termed the claims of compliance “washout”, adding terror camps still exist in Pakistan. They are sending terrorists from these camps to India.
“FATF teams never visit the real breeding grounds in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The arrest of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chiefs are only to show the custody. They are in the safe houses of the Inter-State Intelligence (ISI) agency. All madrassas, too, are still working on the jihad model,” said a source.
PAK?s REPEATED ATTEMPTS TO CREATE INSTABILITY IN INDIA
News18 report had detailed how the clusters are Manshera, Muzzafarabad and Kotli, said sources, adding that all groups, namely the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Al-Badar and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, are running camps there. The Manshera cluster has camps at Boi, Balakot, Garhi Habibullah. The Muzzafarabad cluster has camps at Chelabandi, Shawainala, Abdullah Bin Masood and Dulai. The 3 POK brigade of Pak army is coordinating the activities of Sensa, Kotli, Gulpur, Fagosh and Dubgi camps of Kotli cluster.
Police in J K have said that Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terror outfit was behind the recent twin blasts in Udhampur which were carried out ahead of the high-profile visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to suggest that all is not well in the Union Territory.
Exclusive classified information accessed by CNN-News18 reveals that Pakistan has shifted all its terror camps and launch pads near the line of control (LoC). The locations have been chosen in such a way that every launch pad and terror camp is just a few kilometres away from the border. The terror camps belong to jihadi groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). Also, LeT, in cahoots with the ISI and the Pakistan Army, has been sending weapons, ammunition, and explosives across the border via drones, officials told CNN-News18.
INDIA, PAK BOTH OUR PARTNERS: US
India is irked that countries which claim to be friendly to New Delhi are indirectly supporting terror. However, this is not the first time.
In September, the Biden administration approved a USD 450 million F-16 fighter jet fleet sustainment programme to Pakistan to help it meet current and future counterterrorism threats, in Washington’s first major security assistance to Islamabad in four years. New Delhi had then delivered a sharp rebuke to US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs Donald Lu on the substance and timing of the decision.
Pakistan’s F-16 programme is an important part of the broader United States-Pakistan bilateral relationship. The F-16 fleet allows Pakistan to support counterterrorism operations, the US spokesperson had said.
Meanwhile, on October 16, the Interpol rejected India’s request to issue a Red Corner Notice on terror charges against Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the Indian Express said in a report.
On September 27, the Biden administration said that India and Pakistan are both partners of the US with different points of emphasis, a day after visiting External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar questioned the rationale behind Washington’s USD 450 million F-16 security assistance to Islamabad.
Referring to the argument made by the US that F-16 sustenance package is to fight terrorism, Jaishankar has said that everybody knows where and against whom F-16 fighter jets are used.
“We don’t view our relationship with Pakistan, and on the other hand, we don’t view our relationship with India as in relation to one another. These are both partners of ours with different points of emphasis in each,? State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference on Monday in response to a question on Jaishankar’s remarks.
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