Centre’s Financial Intelligence Unit extends support to Punjab Police to trace foreign terror funding sources

Chandigarh, November 20, 2019: The Financial Intelligence Unit IND (FIU-IND) of the Union Ministry of Finance has extended its support to Punjab Police in tracing sources of terror funding from foreign accounts, thus paving the way for close cooperation between the central and state intelligence agencies to check financing of terror groups from foreign soil. The decision was taken during a day-long Regional Conference on Anti Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), organized by Financial Intelligence Unit-INDIA (FIU-IND) in collaboration with Punjab Police at Intelligence Headquarters, Mohali. With this decision, the FIU-IND and Punjab Police will coordinate closely to overcome the challenge posed by technology in crime and terror financing, besides ensuring financial intelligence in Terror Financing from international sources using FIU Channels. The conference also deliberated on capacity building through the creation of synergy amongst various states and regions to effectively deal with terror and new-age crimes. The conference focused on strengthening the response mechanism in the light of emerging terrorist threats and terror funding. It was aimed at exploring opportunities to share best practices and areas for enhanced cooperation among the participating agencies. More than 65 representatives from different state police organisations from the region and central Law enforcement Agencies (LEAs) participated in the conference. The underlying objective of the conference was to strengthen the partnership between LEAs agencies and FIU-IND for a comprehensive approach to tackle the menace of financing of terrorism, money laundering and organised crimes. In his inaugural address, Punjab DGP Intelligence V K Bhawra reaffirmed the state’s commitment to fight terrorism and all its manifestations. He highlighted the importance of State Police in tackling terrorism as first responder in the event of any terrorist attack. With the advent of Information Technology, the process of investigation had become more complex, making it imperative to promote c-operation and synergy between the State police forces and central agencies, he said. Highlighting the significant role of FIU-IND in furnishing targeted intelligence to help solveimportant terror cases, terror funding cases and some other high profile economic offences, Bhawra emphasised the importance of a strong coordination mechanism of LEAs and FIU-IND to prevent and investigate money laundering as well as terror financing cases. He lauded the efforts of FIU Punjab, working since 2009 to unearth terror modules, and also appreciated its excellent coordination with FIU-IND, which had further helped in achieving unprecedented results in very important cases. On the occasion, officers of FIU-IND held deliberations on various aspects of terror funding etc at various sessions. FIU-IND plans to conduct more such series of conferences in various regions of India to make AML/ CFT mechanisms more effective, the conference was informed. It may be noted that FIU-IND was set up by the Government of India as the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analyzing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions. FIU-IND is an independent body reporting directly to the Economic Intelligence Council headed by the Finance Minister. It has been mandated to provide quality financial intelligence for safeguarding the financial system from the abuses of money laundering, terrorism financing and other economic offences.