TRF’s Dark Funding Trail

Recently, in a sensational disclosure, the Indian premier investigating organization, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), gave out that The Resistance Front (TRF), the proxy group of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which had claimed responsibility for the killing of 26 innocents at the Pahalgam attack on April 22 this year, had received funding from various international channels other than Pakistan. In this connection, the NIA has unearthed as many as 463 phone calls linked to anti-India elements and abettors of terrorism, comprehensively exposing the TRF’s funding avenues. They found definite clues pointing to Pakistan, Malaysia, and Gulf countries, from where the TRF’s funds have trickled in and helped the terrorists to proliferate terrorism in different parts of the region. Further, according to NIA sources, the TRF received about Rs 9 lakh worth of money through Malaysian resident Yasir Hayat, which the NIA has delved into while confirming links with the network of Sajid Mir, the most wanted terrorist of the LeT. Further, the NIA has also retrieved critical information from mobile data, social media chats, bank transactions, and call records of these people.

This extraordinary breakthrough follows NIA raids in Srinagar and Handwara in Jammu and Kashmir. The agency had found vital documents and important leads related to TRF’s foreign funding, with crucial information on the accounts and sources traced to the money. These details will help India present a foolproof case before the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to ensure that Islamabad faces economic consequences for supporting devastating terror activities. India has been consistently pursuing Pakistan’s inclusion into the FATF radar for nations considered safe havens for terror financing and money laundering.

Earlier, it was gathered just after the Pahalgam attack on April 22, that India had sufficient evidence on Pakistan’s terror funding activities and would try to leverage it to put Islamabad back on the FATF’s money laundering grey list. It may be mentioned that Pakistan was earlier placed on the FATF grey list in June 2018, citing the absence of a comprehensive and coordinated risk-based approach to terror financing. Later, in September 2022, Islamabad was removed from the list after the FATF found it to have “completed” an action plan advised by them. Being on the FATF’s grey list meant Pakistan faced more difficulties in getting foreign aid with increased scrutiny. With sources suggesting that it misuses international aid, a lack of foreign financing would lead to worsening inflation and the ongoing economic turmoil in Pakistan.

NIA investigations are further believed to reveal that the target, that is Pahalgam/Baisaran, was chosen considering the “response time” from the security agencies. The terrorists chose Baisaran due to its “high tourist presence,” “relative isolation,” and after considering that the “response (from the security agencies) would take time.” The NIA in June had arrested two men for sheltering the three Pakistan-based terrorists, who were recently neutralised by the security forces. The arrested duo, Parvaiz Ahmad Jothar from Batkote and Bashir Ahmad Jothar from Pahalgam, had disclosed the identities of the three assailants as Pakistani nationals affiliated with the proscribed outfit LeT. The two men provided food, shelter, and other logistical support to the terrorists. The three LeT terrorists, who were killed in the July 28 encounter code-named Operation Mahadev on the outskirts of Srinagar, had been hiding in the Dachigam-Harwan forest belt since the attack.

Significantly, the fresh disclosures by the NIA dispel all doubts about the origin of the perpetrators and the sources of funding. This is a serious development requiring maximum attention to delve deeper and to find out the linkages in Malaysia and the Gulf countries. Malaysia, though outwardly claiming to be cracking down on the terrorists, has results and efforts that are perhaps far from professional satisfaction. This is proved by the recent source of money laundering traced to Malaysia. The investigating agency, in cooperation with the Malaysian intelligence and security organisations, must try to find out if the hate preacher and communally active Zakir Naik has any connections with Sajjad Ahmed Mir or any other person or outfit involved in this act. This is likely to lead to more openings and the discovery of a wider terror network, especially in financing the terror outfits and individuals who are targeting India.

From these developments, it is becoming increasingly clear that Pakistan’s complicity in using its notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is a reality, as it has been earlier in multiple cases of major terror assaults in India, including the notorious 26/11 Mumbai one. Hence, India may do well to prepare a watertight case and bring it to the notice of various countries supported by all the available evidence about the Pakistani hand, particularly in terror financing and the receipt of funds from some foreign countries. That will not only prepare a strong case for the FATF to put Pakistan into the blacklist but also expose the ISI machinations worldwide about its acts of cross-border terrorism and killing of innocents. The US, in particular, must take note of this, as the Pakistani military, at its highest level, now has access to the US military as well as in the political echelons. No country should think that it is free from the menace of terror. Today, it is India, and tomorrow it could be any other country, as seen in the not-so-distant past in the US (9/11) and many other Western countries. It has to be a collective and collaborative effort to contain the spread of terror, which is already creating sensations in the civilised world, cutting across continents. Even DR Congo, Mali, Mauritania, Tanzania, etc. are not spared, even in Africa, perpetrated by the IS, ISIS(KP), Al Shabab, Al Qaeda, etc. Isn’t it high time to rise above parochial interests and unite to combat terror, exposing the inter-terror links and even the complicity of some Deep States?

Views expressed are personally. The writer is a retired IPS officer, Adviser NatStrat, and a former National Security Advisor in Mauritius