Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the world’s anti-terror watchdog has raised an alarm stating that India is facing disparate range of terror threats, most from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or Al-Qaeda-linked groups active in and around Jammu and Kashmir. However, FATF has praised measures taken by India to combat money laundering and terrorist funding activities. FATF published the report on India’s ways to combat money laundering and terrorist financing saying it faces serious terrorism and terrorist financing threats, including related to ISIL or Al Qaeda.
India has a strong emphasis on prevention and has demonstrated its ability to conduct financial investigations. However, India needs to focus more on concluding the convict and sanction terrorist financiers. The global anti-money laundering and terror financing body launched its mutual evaluation report on India, stating the county’s systems were effective. However, major improvements were required to strengthen prosecution in these cases. The 368-page report was released after the assessment was adopted by the Paris-headquartered body at its June plenary meeting. The last such review of India’s combating of money laundering and terror financing regime was published in 2010.
Last November, the report, which comes after an on-site visit of FATF experts have placed the country in the regular follow up category, a distinction shared by only four other G20 countries. The report said India implemented such an anti-money laundering (AML) and combating financing of terror (CFT) system that was effective in many respects.
However, it said major improvements were required to strengthen the prosecution in money laundering and terror financing cases. It said improvements in the system were also required to protect the non-profit sector from terror abuse.
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