Indian Internal Security - 3

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<!--QuoteBegin-k.ram+Feb 15 2007, 06:04 AM-->QUOTE(k.ram @ Feb 15 2007, 06:04 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Terror <b>funded through Indian stock market - official</b>[right][snapback]64436[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Meanwhile, knowing this would mean a loss of votes, the terrified Sonia government has told the people, via its christo mouthpiece 'The Deccan Chronicle', that the data on which this conclusion is based is "old":

http://www.deccan.com/home/homedetails.asp...a%20on%20terror
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>MK used old data on terror</b>
New Delhi, Feb. 15: National security adviser M.K. Narayanan’s disclosure that terrorists are manipulating the Indian stock market here has created ripples in the security and political establishment with questions being immediately raised about the government’s failure to take remedial measures to secure the Indian financial institutions. The BJP came out with a full-throated attack on Mr Narayanan, asking what the government has done in the past three years “while the NSA was privy to such vital national security information”.

An embarrassed government has maintained a stoic silence with Pakistan also not reacting immediately despite the mention of its Habib Bank by Mr Narayanan in his address to the 43rd Conference on Security Policy in Munich. Unofficially, sources said that Mr Narayanan’s presentation appeared to be based on “old” information as the financing of terrorism had been an issue three to four years ago, when the US took action against funding organisations like Al Rashid, and as far back as 2002 froze over $112 million in 500 accounts worldwide as part of its “war on terrorist financing”.

Mr Narayanan’s reference to Habib Bank appears to be linked to an investigative report in the Pakistani newspaper Daily Times which found that a Muslim charity based in the UK had remitted a big amount of money as “earthquake relief” to the accounts of three individuals in the Saudi Pak Bank, Standard Chartered and Habib Bank Ltd. The money was transferred from the UK through Barclays Plc. Two of the recipients were British citizens of Kashmir origin, the third was based in Islamabad and was also of Kashmir origin.

They were all arrested and were reportedly connected to an “aircraft bombing plan” that was effectively countered. Bank sources here admitted that individual accounts were likely to be used for such purposes but that now “a close watch is kept on individual and other accounts to detect any unusual movement of finances”.  Mr Narayanan’s “alarmist view” is not shared by the strategic establishment here with a senior former diplomat agreeing with the BJP that if the situation was indeed what the NSA had painted it out to be, then “what has the government done to check this?”  The US had earlier taken action against Pakistan-based charities that had been found to have links to terrorist outfits.

The US treasury designated the Al Akhtar trust as a terrorist support organisation linked to Al Qaeda, and said it was reportedly carrying out the activities of the better known Al Rashid Trust, which had been designated by the US earlier. The trust had reportedly deposited funds in Habib Bank Ltd, Habib Bank AG Zurich and the Muslim Commercial Bank. The US state department had designated 236 individuals, entities and organisations under the President’s Executive Order as supporters of terrorism.

It had also identified and designated 34 entities as foreign terrorist organisations with 166 countries having issued blocking orders against the assets of terrorists at least five years ago. Mr Narayanan’s assertion that terrorist groups were involved in restaurants, real estate and shipping, however, appears to indicate a fresh burst of terrorist financing activity although he has not backed it with evidence, or with any idea of what action the Indian government has taken to cripple this nexus if it actually exists. The BJP statement pointed out that Mr Narayanan is in the “habit of springing surprises”, as he had earlier by stating that Indian atomic energy installations were under threat of terrorist attacks, and that Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Al Qaeda elements had infiltrated the Indian Army.

The last was hotly denied by the defence services. The UPA government has not touched upon terror funding until Mr Narayanan’s dramatic disclosures in Munich.  The NSA’s detailed report appears to suggest infiltration of terror groups in Indian financial institutions in a big way. It is not clear why no steps have been taken to check this, and why the announcement was made at a conference abroad.

The only specific consequence of his information, which has appeared in newspapers and state department briefings over the past several years, has been a demand from the BJP for more stringent laws, and restoration of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which was repealed without a mechanism for foreign funding. Mr Narayanan’s statement that “official agencies” in Pakistan were using a parallel banking system to send money for militancy in India, the BJP pointed out, reflected the overall failure of the intelligence.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> <!--emo&:thumbdown--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' /><!--endemo-->