Bleed dry sources that finance terror
25 Feb 2013 9:53 AM GMT
If the Finance Ministry’s latest report, showing a mind-boggling 300 per cent rise in suspicious transactions linked to terrorist activities and the red-flagging of over 1,400 instances of such terror-marked monetary exchanges and banking accounts, is anything to go by, we clearly have a situation at hand that’s spiralling out of bounds unless a concerted effort is made across the board to bleed dry the morbid sources that finance such reprehensible acts. The ministry’s Financial Intelligence Unit has reportedly assembled about 1,444 documented evidences of shady transactions, with imputs from various intelligence units such as the IB, RAW, as well as the Income Tax and Customs departments, thus not only proving beyond a doubt the presence of fully operational terror-breeding nurseries within India, but also at the transnational nexus of such terror-coloured circuits of finance, with many originating from our western neighbour, which derives its geopolitical sustenance by waging a proxy war with us within our territory. As home-grown and foreign terror modules coalesce and work in unison to derail India’s already rickety security system, tracing the terror money trail can offer up potential clues and make nabbing the benefactors of terror an achievable goal. Money laundering and terror financing have become, despicably enough, a lucrative business model and several commercial enterprises, national and international, flourish on spreading violent extremism for mere profiteering and mercenary gains.
When the home minister Sushilkumar Shinde addressed the Interpol General Assembly meeting on 5 November 2012 in Rome, he underlined the importance of monitoring the money trail that tracking terror leads the investigative agencies to. In this age of late capitalism and internet banking, following digital imprints are crucial to expose the masterminds and conspirators of terror. While it’s important not to communalise terror by branding it ‘green’ or ‘saffron’, exactly what the Congress ministers have been busy doing, acknowledging the presence of religious fundamentalism of all hues and the resultant terrorism without playing to the gallery of vote-bank politics is the first step towards decoding the psyche of the terrorists, which thrives on exploiting such divisive mentalities at work. In addition, sprucing up real time intelligence gathering is the need of the hour and in this context, what must be kept in mind is that better coordination between the states and the centre only bolsters the federal structure of this nation, and does not weaken it.
When the home minister Sushilkumar Shinde addressed the Interpol General Assembly meeting on 5 November 2012 in Rome, he underlined the importance of monitoring the money trail that tracking terror leads the investigative agencies to. In this age of late capitalism and internet banking, following digital imprints are crucial to expose the masterminds and conspirators of terror. While it’s important not to communalise terror by branding it ‘green’ or ‘saffron’, exactly what the Congress ministers have been busy doing, acknowledging the presence of religious fundamentalism of all hues and the resultant terrorism without playing to the gallery of vote-bank politics is the first step towards decoding the psyche of the terrorists, which thrives on exploiting such divisive mentalities at work. In addition, sprucing up real time intelligence gathering is the need of the hour and in this context, what must be kept in mind is that better coordination between the states and the centre only bolsters the federal structure of this nation, and does not weaken it.
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