Pakistan prunes terror watch list, Lakhvi off it

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 21

India is looking carefully at a revelation that Pakistan has removed thousands of names, including that of 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, from a terrorist watch list claiming that many of them had died and several others were “not associated” with any terror organisation.

India has reasons to be skeptical because the revelation that the list has been halved from 7,600 to 3,800 did not come from Pakistan or the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) but from data collected by Castellum.AI, a New York-based regulatory technology company.

Reports quoted a Pakistani official as saying the list was riddled with inaccuracies and update was needed to fulfill FATF’s direction to clean up its database ahead of its June assessment. India may not comment specifically till it has ascertained from either the FATF or an independent perusal of the list. Sources suggested that by keeping the revision of the list a secret, Pakistan may have violated FATF standards.

Pakistan has been under close FATF scrutiny for almost three years.