New Delhi: Even though terrorism in India has witnessed a drastic decrease, National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday admitted that terror funding is a major challenge for the country.
"No doubt that terror incidents are decreasing in India whether in J&K, LWE areas, Northeast or Punjab. But terror funding has become a major challenge and we have to be prepared for the same. There is a pattern of terror funding which needs to be fought," NIA director general Dinker Gupta told ETV Bharat.
"We have to strengthen our infrastructure to fight the menace of international terror financing," Gupta said on the eve of the 3rd ministerial conference in New Delhi on "No Money For Terror" (NMFT). The two-day-long conference scheduled to get started on Friday will be attended by representatives of 72 countries and 15 multi-lateral international organizations like INTERPOL5 and others.
India is the host partner of the 3rd ministerial conference to fight terror financing. More than 20 ministers from different countries will be participating in the conference. Interestingly, Pakistan and Afghanistan have not been invited to the conference. "Along with 73 participating countries, China has also been invited, although we are yet to get a response from them," said Sanjay Verma, Secretary (West) in the external affairs ministry.
Also read: 78 countries excluding Pakistan to participate in 'No Money For Terror' Conference: NIA DG
One of the major agenda of the two-day-long conference is social media platforms which has been used for crowd financing. "Social media fits into the conference agenda because social media platforms are used for terror financing in the forms of crowd financing, and this needs to be discussed," said Verma.
The conference will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday whereas Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the concluding function of the conference on Saturday. Giving details of the agenda, NIA DG said, "On Friday, a discussion will be held on trends in terror financing and formal ways of terror financing which will be chaired by Home Minister Shah and Pankaj Choudhary, MoS, Finance."
"On the second day, there will be two sessions including emerging technology in terror financing and need to strengthen national cooperation to tackle terror financing which will be chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah and MoS Home Nityanand Rai." "The conference aims to check financial flows to terrorist organizations," said Gupta.
An official from the Home Ministry said that the conference would build on the gains and learnings of the previous two conferences (held in Paris in April 2018 and in Melbourne in November 2019). "It will work towards enhancing global cooperation to deny finances to terrorists and access to permissive jurisdictions to operate," the official said.
