FATF Slams Pakistan Over Pahalgam Terror Attack, Grey Listing Looms
New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an organisation that monitors global terrorist funding has lashed out at Pakistan and strongly condemned their role in the Pahalgam attack which killed 26 innocent people. After this incident, there is looming possibility of Pakistan being grey listed again on FATF list and the demand for the same has started to gain momentum.
In a statement issued on Monday, FATF clearly stated that “such attacks cannot be possible without funding and terrorist networks.” This statement of FATF directly points towards Pakistan, which has been providing support and financial aid to terrorism for a long time.
FATF also stressed that it is now focusing more on concrete and effective steps being taken by member countries to stop the financing of terrorism. This statement comes at a time when India has consistently presented strong evidence of Pakistan promoting and funding terrorism on the international platform.
According to sources, India is now preparing to start the process of putting Pakistan in the FATF's 'grey list' again. India is preparing a detailed dossier against Pakistan before the upcoming Asia Pacific Group meeting on August 25 and the FATF plenary meeting on October 20. This dossier will also include evidence related to the Pahalgam terror attack.
It is worth noting that Pakistan was first put on the FATF gray list in 2008. However, it was removed from this list in 2010, but it was included again in 2012. Pakistan was removed from the gray list in 2015, but it was once again put on this list in 2018. In October 2022, FATF removed Pakistan from the gray list, but instructed it to continue improving its action plan.
According to FATF, more than 200 countries and regions of the world are connected to its network and are working together to stop terrorist funding. FATF has also recently issued a warning about new threats like social media, crowd funding and virtual assets and is going to publish a detailed analysis on this soon.