"Our appeal to put Pakistan on grey list of FATF is getting resonance": BJP MP Baijayant Panda

Algiers [Algeria], June 2 (ANI): BJP MP Baijayant Panda, who led the all-party delegation to Algeria on Monday, said that India's appeal to place Pakistan back on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list is gaining significant resonance globally, emphasising the role of illicit financing in fuelling terrorism.

Panda highlighted Pakistan's misuse of funds for terrorism and its military, noting the other Islamic countries had taken a strong stand against any kind of fundamentalism in their country.

"Pakistan is not interested in improving itself or helping its people... They have diverted the money for terrorism and its army and looted it... Terrorism is fuelled by two things. One is ideology and the other is illicit finance... Ideology-wise, these Islamic countries have taken a strong stand... They do not permit any kind of fundamentalism from their soil... Financing part is the other aspect," Panda stated.

"Pakistan for many years was under FATF, which monitored the legitimate use of funding, and thus there was a period of lull in terrorism... Now, for the last couple of years, they were released from the grey list, and now they are operating freely... Our appeal to them that Pakistan should be kept on the FATF grey list is getting a lot of resonance. The world is committed to not tolerating terrorism anymore," he added.

Greylisting Pakistan by the FATF will limit its access to international loans. Pakistan was included in the grey list in 2018 and removed from it in 2022. India has stated that it will make no effort to bring Pakistan onto the grey list again.

Detailing the delegation's engagements, Panda lauded the "outstanding, extremely fruitful, very friendly, and very cooperative" meetings in Algeria, emphasising the North African nation's deep understanding of India's struggle against terrorism, particularly due to its own history of suffering from Pakistani-trained Salafist terrorism and its strong support for India's anti-terrorism stance following the April 22 Pahalgam attack.

"As with other countries, the meetings in Algeria have been outstanding, extremely fruitful, very friendly, and very cooperative. Algeria itself, like these other countries, has not only suffered terrorism but Algeria has specifically suffered Pakistani terrorism. So, they completely understand where we come from. In their so-called black decade of the 1990s, where they had a lot of terrorist activities and attacks, Algeria was also attacked by the Salafists who were trained in Peshawar in Pakistan," the BJP MP said.

"They have also taken very strong steps in their recent history to quell terrorism. Also, Algeria has a shared culture with India in the fight against Colonialism... Algeria has very strongly supported our stand. They had given a very strong statement after the April 22 terrorist attack. Now also they have said that they have zero tolerance for terrorism and they're going to cooperate with India and take further steps," he added.

The delegation, led by Panda, includes BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey, Phangnon Konyak and Rekha Sharma, AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi, MP Satnam Singh Sandhu and Ghulam Nabi Azad and former Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

The delegation aims to brief international partners on India's response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and its broader fight against cross-border terrorism while engaging with leaders in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Algeria. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)