New Delhi: Ahead of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meet which is slated to be held in October, expert says that Pakistan should be removed from the grey list and downgraded to ‘blacklist’ by FATF at any cost as Islamabad needs to be held accountable for harbouring, financing and assisting terror activities.
In an interview with ETV Bharat, Suvro Kamal Dutta Political and Foreign policy Expert on Pakistan said, “Pakistan sponsoring terrorism, helping terrorist outfits in relation to India will continue, it has continued. Pakistan has been indulging in a proxy war with India for the last 30-35 years now. They have been exporting terrorism for a long time and they will continue to do that.
He highlighted that the dreaded terrorists apprehended by NIA in Kerala and West Bengal recently is nothing new as even in the past all the security agencies, police and NIA have time and again captured many terrorists who have links with ISI of Pakistan. Their only mission was to create problems and violence across the nook and corner of the country and that they will continue doing this even in future. This has been the malicious agenda of Pakistan for a long time.
Pakistan for its own survival as a state needs to create problem in India and especially on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, Dutta pointed out.“The kind of moral sermons Pakistan is giving across the globe is that it is trying its best to control terror outfits, as well as terrorism emancipating from its soil, is nothing but just lip service. Of late, Pakistan has been crying a lot that it has been trying hard to capture all the dreaded terrorists and has been taking action by banning all terror outfits in Pakistan. This is a way to camouflage the reality", he told ETV Bharat.
He says the agenda is very clear and that to avoid from being declared as a ‘terrorist nation’, Pakistan has been giving moral version that it has been making efforts to curb terrorism, but it has taken zero action against terrorist outfits especially those outfits which operates from the Pakistani soil and has carried out all clandestine activities in India.
“Therefore, India has to be very clear at the global level especially at the FATF summit that Pakistan is hoodwinking the global community. Action needs to be taken at the FATF and Pakistan from ‘grey list’ has to be sent to the ‘blacklist’, he underlines.
Read: Ahead of FATF meet, Pakistan treat 21 dreaded terrorists as VIPs
According to the latest report, Pakistan has been playing the card of double standards, as the country, despite the FATF threat hanging over its head, continues to harbour terrorists and is giving VIP treatment to many of them including underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, Pakistan-based Khalistan Zindabad Force terrorist Ranjeet Singh Neeta. Sources said that the international community is concerned about the hypocrisy of Pakistan which is pretending to take action against terrorists but funding them.
“For a long time, Pakistan has been in the ‘grey list’ and in my understanding; the country needs to be removed from the ‘grey list’ because it has failed to comply by the FATF requirements. In order to improve, there were certain commitments which Pakistan had to fulfil in relation to terror funding, narco-terrorism, curbing the nexus between narcotic outfits and the terrorist outfits, also for taking creditable action against the Mumbai terror modus operandi, Parliament attack and the other people involved in the World Trade Centre and the London Tube Rail explosion, but till date, Pakistan has not taken any actions whether it is against the Lashkar-e-Taiba or Harkat-ul- Ansar and Jaish-e-Mohammad”, Dutta further added.
FATF had also suggested that Pakistan should take creditable action against all the dreaded global terrorist organizations which have been blacklisted by several countries and also against those who have been declared as ‘global terrorist’ by the UN. But Pakistan has not done anything as such. FATF has given enough time to Pakistan to take a call on the global issues, so Pakistan FATF needs to blacklist Pakistan at any cost, he reiterated.
According to the sources, the Pakistan government is giving VIP security to 21 dreaded terrorists including those sanctioned last month. It is pertinent to note that India has repeatedly exposed Pakistan who is sponsoring the terrorist groups and training and arming them to wage war against India.
According to Ary news report, last month, Pakistan had imposed more restrictions on 88 leaders and members of terrorist groups, in compliance with the new list, issued by the United Nations Security Council. Hafiz Saeed Ahmad of Jamaat Ud Dawa, Mohammad Masood Azhar of JeM and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Ibrahim are on the list.
Though Pakistan has claimed that it is taking actions against the terrorist groups, however, there are no details of how many actions have been implemented. Pakistan is doing nothing but saving itself from getting demoted from FATF grey list to blacklist during the upcoming October plenary meeting. Moreover, in recent weeks Pakistan has been trying to paint a picture that it has started the reforms including the passing of bills in order to prevent blacklisting by FATF.
Analysts believe that the Pakistan government is creating an illusion and its attempt to name Indian nationals on terror list at the UN is the highest form of ‘hypocrisy’ just to camouflage itself from reality. The reality is that whether the authorities in the Pakistani Government or in ISI or in the Army, have a clear cut understanding with all dreaded international terrorist outfits.
FATF stands for "reviewing money laundering and terrorist financing techniques and continuously strengthening its standards to address new risks, such as the regulation of virtual assets, which have spread as cryptocurrencies gain popularity."Pakistan is in the ‘grey list’ since June 2018 and the government was given a final warning in February to complete the remaining action points by June 2020.
Also recently, the Asia-Pacific Group (APG), a regional affiliate of the multilateral watchdog, reviewed Pakistan’s actions to counter-terror financing and money laundering at a virtual meeting on September 15 and 16 and as per sources, at the virtual meeting, China expectedly backed Pakistan’s actions to counter-terror financing, despite the fact that it is yet to fully deliver on 13 of the 27 points in the action plan.
Also read: Pak to hold fresh sessions next week to get FATF bills passed
