Terrorism runs through funding. Who are the donors, what are the ways of remitting funds, how are the funds utilized and who keeps the account of receipts and expenditures? These are some major questions that arise when we begin a discourse on funding of terrorist agencies. To the handlers of terrorism, this is a multi-billion dollar question, which they will never disclose, come what may because secrecy is the hallmark of terrorism. Speaking historically, terror has been part of human history. A major portion of the history of humankind is the history of violence in one or the other form. It is so because violence and crime are inherent in the nature of man. However, there are only a few instances of institutionalization of crime in the past. The earliest of these was of early 13th century fidayeen of Iran connected with the movement of Assassins of Alamut. Though the Assassin movement was not fiercely a religious movement yet it did carry the ingredient of religion and the sponsors exploited it to the hilt.
However, in our times, terrorism got institutionalized and realizing that the cause cannot be pushed through by waging conventional war and fighting, the jihadis resorted to proxy war of limited range. This is possible only when indigenous population is sensitized to the formidable religious doctrines and brainwashing of cadres coming from the youth of the community. However, since proxy war has to be waged with the help of sophisticated weapons and communication systems, and since motivation to join the ranks of jihadis depends on monetary allurement, it was found that the success of Islamic jihad was subservient to the availability of huge funds.
Since some parts of world were sensitized through a blitzkrieg of propaganda, vast diasporas in the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, UK, US, European States and Australia made it a point to raise funds and fund the jihadi movements wherever these were and in whatever form these were fighting their adversaries. Pakistani’s ISI also sensitized Pakistanis as well as non-Pakistani Muslim diasporas in the Gulf and European countries. Various organizations of these diasporas collectively or individually raised enormous funds and sent them to the operatives in Pakistan for onward transmission to the jihadis operating in J&K. Pakistan-based sources used all sorts of means, Hawala, banks with fake account holders, cross LoC transactions, smuggling fake currency circulation and many other channels to fund the jihadi organizations. According to the reports emerging from Indian intelligence, more than a hundred crore rupees have passed into the hands of three main terrorist organizations operating in Kashmir and some other parts of the countries. Besides funds coming from abroad, some local sources are also reported to be among the benefactors of the terrorists and jihadis. At least funding has come from two Indian States and the security officials have established it after investigation.
In this background, the Central Government has alerted banks, money transfer sources, NGOs etc. all over the country to be alert and choke the funding of agencies and organizations that feed the terrorists operating in different parts of the country. Choking of sources that provide funds to the terrorist outfits is one of the strong recommendations of the G-20 on tackling the problem of terrorism. We strongly support Government’s decision of taking strict notice of clandestine funding of terror and plugging all loopholes so that they are dried up. Government should come down with a heavy hand on those found involved in funding the terrorists. The nation will lend its unstinted support to such efforts.
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