The Union Home Ministry recently set up two wings that would look into ways to combat the various methods adopted by terrorists in funding operations in India
The two wings -- Combating of Funding of Terrorists and Terror Funding and Fake Currency -- have in all 45 cases to handle.
Officials in the new agencies say that they are in touch with the police from all across the country and each case big or small they would want to be kept in the loop about. Besides, they are seeking the help of financial institutions that have become a major parking space for fake currency.
The challenges before the two agencies are immense, as terror network operations are deep-rooted.
Latest Intelligence Bureau reports suggest that fake currency is not being pumped in from Pakistan alone.
Though Pakistan continues to be a primary player in the fake currency racket, over the past couple of months, agencies have found that newer channels via China and Thailand with similar modus operandi have opened up. There are at least 30 different routes from both these countries, which are being used to pump in fake currency.
Earlier, the notes were printed in Pakistan and distributed from there. However, now the notes are printed in Pakistan and then sent into Nepal, China and Thailand before being pumped into India.
In the last one year, fake currency worth nearly Rs 5000 crore has been pumped into Uttar Pradesh from the new routes.
The National Investigation Agency says that there is a need for a lot of inter-governmental cooperation to curb this problem.
The agency adds that these notes have spread like cancer in the Indian market and that it will take a very long time before it is cleared out.
While the China network continues to be a headache for the security agencies, they also find that there are networks being opened up in Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates and very recently Sri Lanka.
While this is one part of the headache, the other big issue that the TFFC and the CFT face is funding through a hawala network.
Kerala, a key destination for hawala funding, has remittances from the Gulf running into over Rs 20,000 crore per year and a large part of it has been found to fund subversive activities.
With the formation of new agencies, there is a bigger chance of fake currency being seized. Hence, the reliance on hawala money for terror operations is also likely to come down.
In addition to this it has also been found that countries like the United Arab Emirates, which allegedly house most of these hawala operators linked to India, have slowly started to move away from this business.
While hawala and fake currency will continue to be under scrutiny in the days to come, donations too will come under the radar.
It has been noticed that for small operations, terror groups are relying heavily on donations from sympathisers and more often than not they do not need to look outside the country for the same. Hence these agencies would have that additional job to undertake.
