The global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force has strongly condemned the Pulwama terror attack at its plenary meeting, which concluded in Paris on Friday.
“The FATF notes with grave concern and condemns the violent terrorist attack last week that killed 40 Indian security forces in Pulwama,” the 38-member watchdog said in a statement. “Such attacks cannot occur without money and the means to move funds between terrorist supporters,” it said.
The FATF said Pakistan has not done enough to curb the finances of terror groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. This means Pakistan continues to remain in what is called the ‘grey list’, making it hard for the country to get international loans.
Pakistan has made only “limited progress” on curbing money laundering and terrorism financing, failing to show a proper understanding of the risks posed by Islamic State, Al Qaeda and others, the Paris-based FATF said.
“Pakistan does not demonstrate a proper understanding of the terror financing risks posed by JuD, LeT, JeM, and persons affiliated with the Taliban… Pakistan should continue to work on implementing its action plan to address its strategic deficiencies,” the FATF said.
The FATF said it was continuing to work with Pakistan, which has been hoping to get off a “grey list” of nations with inadequate controls over such activities.
“Given the limited progress on action plan items … the FATF urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan, particularly those with timelines of May 2019,” the FATF said in a statement.
Pakistan’s western allies have long pushed Islamabad to do more to curb militant groups on its soil.
Pakistan has until May 2019 to complete its action plan. If country does not meet the targets by October, it could be blacklisted. Pakistan was placed on the ‘grey list’ in June last year and was lobbying hard to be removed from this list at this meeting.
