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OPINION DECEMBER 30, 2022 | The Indian Eye 12

NO MONEY FOR TERROR:

The Challenges and the Way Ahead

The funding of terrorism is as old as terrorism itself. Its importance grew as a result of terrorism taking the form
of an organized activity rather than merely the action of an individual. This characteristic remains the underlying

factor why the terrorist groups have been successful in sustaining their wide range of activities

Courtesy: IDSA

VIVEK CHADHA for Terror’ conference, on 18 Novem- be leveraged to neutralize terrorist ways been central to transferring ter-
ber 2022, made some far-reaching networks. ror funds. While in the past, terrorist
ndia hosted the ‘No Money for observations, which reinforced the Earlier, during a special meet- groups have exploited legal channels
Terror’ conference on 18–19 No- challenges associated with terrorism ing of the CTC on 29 October 2022, to move money across the world
Ivember 2022 at New Delhi. The finance. He stated that “There is no at New Delhi, the Delhi Declaration through an interlinked network, re-
conference was attended by partic- place for an ambiguous approach was issued. The document aimed “to cent years have witnessed a prolifer-
ipants from 78 countries, including while dealing with a global threat. It is cover the main concerns surrounding ation brought about by the influence
20 ministers, indicating the growing an attack on humanity, freedom and the abuse of drones, social media plat- of technology. What began with Wire
importance of fighting the financing civilization. It knows no boundaries”. forms, and crowdfunding, and create Transfer, PayPal and electronic wallets
of terrorism. This was the third in the Highlighting the challenge of state guidelines that will help to tackle the has now moved into the domain of vir-
series of conferences on the subject. terrorism, he raised the duplicitous growing issue”. tual denominations and more specifi-
The inaugural event was held at Par- behavior of countries which “support The funding of terrorism is as cally, cryptocurrency. This has brought
is in 2018 and second at Melbourne terrorism as part of their state policy”, old as terrorism itself. Its importance in its wake multiple challenges.
in 2019. The wider relevance of the alluding to the threat emanating from grew as a result of terrorism taking However, virtual currencies have
theme was reinforced by the preced- Pakistan. the form of an organized activity rath- emerged as a challenge in the re-
ing events hosted by India. The Prime Minister spoke of the er than merely the action of an indi- cent times. Multiple forms of virtual
The meeting of the Counter Ter- linkages between organized crime vidual. This characteristic remains the currencies can be bought and sold
rorism Committee (CTC) of the Unit- and terrorism finance. This includes underlying factor why the terrorist on a peer-to-peer network, without
ed Nations Security Council (UNSC) raising funds through criminal activ- groups have been successful in sus- a central financial authority having
was held on 28–29 October 2022. Pri- ities and its linkages with terrorism taining their wide range of activities. control over transactions. Wherever
or to that, the 90th Interpol General financing for logistics and communi- An assessment of terrorism suggests virtual currencies took the form of
Assembly was held at New Delhi on cation facilities. The challenges em- the limited requirement of funds for cryptographic technologies, their an-
18–21 October 2022. In all these mul- anating from technological advance- individual acts by terrorists when onymity and decentralization became
tilateral interactions, one of the key ments were reinforced, with special compared to the substantially larger even more robust. In an environment
areas of focus was on countering ter- emphasis on the “dark net and private financial needs to run a terrorist orga- where most countries have neither
rorism finance, which continues to re- currencies”. nization. created a regulatory mechanism, nor
main a major challenge for the inter- Prime Minister also underlined There are multiple ways in which have formulated laws for incorporat-
national community, despite sincere the need to “strike at the root of ter- funding for terrorism transits from ing it into the financial system, its po-
efforts being made to curb it. rorism” which includes its funding. the source to its destination. In addi- tential for misuse becomes that much
This article highlights the major The spoke of a “uniform, unified and tion to formal channels, as has been higher. This is one of the major factors
aspects raised during the conferences zero-tolerance approach” to defeat noted, terrorists and their support- for criminals and terrorist groups tak-
related to terrorism finance, discusses terrorism and underlined the impor- ers also use ‘hawala’, cash and trade ing to virtual currencies as an option
the challenges that continue to con- tance of pursuing terrorists, breaking as options. The multiplicity of transit for moving their money with relative
strain the efforts at countering terror- their support networks and hitting routes allows the path of least resis- anonymity.
ism finance and briefly outlines spe- their finances. He also emphasized tance to be exploited. This is similar to Virtual currencies have been
cific initiatives that have strengthened the importance of using “technology the logic of flowing water, which tends supplemented by money collection
the fight against this global threat. to track, trace and tackle terrorism”. to take the route of least resistance initiatives like crowdfunding, which
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, He added that “the answer is not to through its course. is an international, electronic version
during his address at the ‘No Money demonize technology”, as it can also The role of technology has al- Continued at next page... >>

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