Officials set to nail Pak at FATF meet

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 14

To highlight Pakistan’s role in terror financing, a team led by Financial Intelligence Unit-India chief, comprising officials from the NIA, ED, IB, Finance Ministry and MHA, is all set fly to Paris for the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary scheduled for next week.

The officials are going with dossiers highlighting the funding of Khulafala-e-Rashideen mosque construction in Uttawar village, Haryana, by LeT, a proscribed organisation, and receipt of foreign funds by controversial outfit PFI, which is heavily into Islamic radicalisation of youth, sources said.

The FATF’s February 17-22 meeting comes in the backdrop of a Pakistani court sentencing LeT founder Hafeez Sayeed to 11 years in jail for terror financing, a move seen as an attempt by Islamabad to avoid blacklisting. Last year, the FATF had asked Pakistan to fully implement its anti-terror action plan by February 2020 or face severe action. Pakistan is already under the grey list since June 2018.