India calls for coordinated efforts against terror funding at UNSC
New Delhi, Oct 28 (EFE).- India on Friday channeled the discussion at the Counter Terrorism Committee of the United Nations Security Council towards coordinated efforts to check international funding of terrorist groups, in the backdrop of the long-standing insurgency in the India-administered Kashmir
“We all know that money is the lifeblood of terrorism. Terrorist organizations require funds and resources to maintain their organizational functions and undertake activities,” Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said during the opening session of the committee’s special meeting in the western city of Mumbai.
He added that the fact that terrorism continues to exist and expand “points to an underlying truth: that terrorism continues to get the necessary financial resources to thrive.”
The Indian government has insisted that it is the financing received by the major terrorist groups operating the country that turn them into a major threat.
Armed separatist insurgency in Kashmir, Islamist groups and insurgency in northeast India, as well as the ultra-left movements in the country depend on local and international funding for their survival.
Although handling cash is the predominant medium of their funding, the digitalization of currency and cryptocurrencies have become a fresh challenge for India over the past year, senior Indian government official Safi Ahsan Rizvi said.
He added that the biggest problem and major challenge was “state sponsorship” of terrorist groups, especially insurgent groups operating in India-administered Kashmir, Islamist organizations, and the Pro-Khalistan separatist movement in northern India.
“International cooperation and concerted action against terrorists and their sponsors, including through dismantlement of terrorist safe havens, sanctuaries, training grounds and financial and ideological as well as political support structures, are critical imperatives to defeat this scourge,” Jaishankar said.
“We look forward to the deliberations at the special meeting of the Committee tomorrow in New Delhi,” he added.
The special meeting, set to conclude on Saturday, is being attended by delegates from several countries and is focused on the use of new technologies for terrorism, such as internet, social networks, digital payments and drones.
The choice of Mumbai to host some of the venue is aimed at marking the site of the 2008 serial bombings carried out by terrorists who had arrived from Pakistan. At least 166 people were killed in the Mumbai terror attacks, which targeted a train station, a Jewish center and several restaurants and hotels, including the iconic Taj mahal hotel.
The special meeting in India is the first to be held away from the committee’s headquarters in New York in seven years, following a similar event held in Madrid in 2015. EFE
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