Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 15, 2007
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Terrorists_tap_Dalal_St_for_strikes_NSA/articleshow/1614704.cms
Terror groups operating with the support of
Pakistan have resorted to carefully charted manipulation of Indian stock exchanges
through ghost companies to raise millions of dollars for planning and carrying
out strikes against India.
The operation allows jehadi outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba,
Hizbul Mujahideen and Al-Badr to tap funds through an ostensibly legitimate
route. The companies, which often exist only on paper with addresses in the
Middle East, are fronts for Pakistani agencies.
The stunning disclosure, which marks the evolution
of anti-India terrorism into a well-choreographed, sophisticated operation
and points to the resolve to sustain the campaign against India, has come
from national security adviser M K Narayanan.
Speaking at a conference on international
security at Munich last week, Narayanan said: "Isolated instances of
terrorist outfits manipulating the stock exchanges have been reported... stock
exchanges in Mumbai and Chennai have, on occasion, reported that fictitious
or notional companies were engaging in stock market operations."
Narayanan also spoke of a conspiracy by "official
agencies" in Pakistan, a euphemism for ISI, for the plot to carry out
"economic subversion". He gave his audience - an influential gathering
of heads of governments, foreign ministers and other dignitaries - a detailed
view of the unconventional threat posed by terrorists raising funds within
India to strike against the country.
He outlined the complex mix of funding routes
- through stock exchanges, banking channels, ordinary ATM withdrawals and
hawala trails as well as operation of legitimate businesses like hotels and
transport - used by modern terrorists to sustain and launch their operations.
The challenge, he said, lay in forging cooperation between governments to
choke terror funding.
This is the first time that the national security
adviser, who had previously disclosed a jehadi plot against India's atomic
facilities, has revealed that stock exchange operations were being used to
fund terror.
