From rxpgnews.com
India, US discuss terrorist financing
By IANS,
Feb 28, 2007 - 7:38:59 PM
New Delhi, Feb 28 - India and the US Wednesday decided to step up their coordination in countering terrorism and targeting sources of terrorist financing - a crucial issue for New Delhi, especially after recent disclosure about stock exchanges being manipulated to fund Pakistan-based terrorists.
The Indo-US joint working group on counter-terrorism, led by K.C. Singh, additional secretary - and US' Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Frank Urbancic Wednesday discussed a series of 'cooperative strategies' to fight the global scourge of terrorism.
'The two parties also discussed terrorist finance and money laundering, the ideological dimensions of terrorism, information sharing and widened cooperation for preventing terrorist acts,' said a statement by the external affairs ministry.
The two countries shared notes on regional counter-terrorism efforts, threat assessments in South Asia and the Middle East, bio-terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and the on-going Anti-terrorism Assistance Training Programme.
'They also agreed to find new ways to forge institutional linkages to foster closer interaction and cooperation,' said the statement.
The next meeting of the counter-terrorism joint working group will be held in Washington later this year.
Speaking at the 43rd Munich conference on security policy Feb 11, National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan had said that isolated incidents of terrorists manipulating stock markets in Mumbai and Chennai to raise funds for their operations had been reported.
Conduits through which such funds find their way to terrorist organisations include established channels such as the Habib Bank in Pakistan, Narayanan had said.
The India-US counter-terrorism meeting has an added significance coming as it does less than two weeks after the recent bomb explosions in the friendship train between India and Pakistan.
India has agreed to share the leads in the ongoing probe into the blasts in the Delhi-Attari express that killed 68 people of both countries at the meeting of the India-Pakistan joint anti-terror mechanism in Islamabad March 6.
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