GS Paper: GS3-23.Security Challenges and their Management in Border Areas – Linkages of Organized Crime with Terrorism.

Context

• With arms and terror infiltration becoming difficult, Pakistan has now resorted to peddling drugs to degenerate the youth of Jammu and Kashmir. Narcotics, Pakistan’s new weapon to finance terrorism within the Valley, has been dubbed the biggest challenge confronting Jammu and Kashmir by Police Chief Dilbag Singh.

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Background: Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and its impact

• The culture of violence implemented through constant financial and strategic support to the insurgency in the Kashmir Valley by Pakistan by training and infiltrating weapons and militants impacted society in many ways.
• Pakistan-backed terrorism destroyed the centuries-old socioeconomic and sociocultural fabric of society.
• The deaths, mass exodus of Pandits, and increased unemployment eroded the composite way of life and increased boredom, depression, and anxiety among the masses.

How Pakistan’s designs are failing?

• Pakistan-sponsored terrorism is at an all-time low in Jammu and Kashmir, three years after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A.
• The number of active militants has fallen from 250 by the end of 2019 to just over 100 by January 2023.
• Security agencies have tried hard to achieve zero terror activities within the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and busted 146 terror modules created by Pakistan in 2022.
• As a result, Pakistan’s design to create a culture of violence in the Valley endorsed by self-serving and incestuous political elite under the guise of autonomy for the last 30 years is failing.

Drug strategy of Pakistan in Kashmir

• Strategy serves dual purpose for Pakistan: Now, with the people of Kashmir increasingly relinquishing terrorism and a culture of violence, the drug strategy serves dual purposes for Islamabad. One, to attack the core of the social well-being, and two, to finance terrorism within the Valley.
• Constant infiltration of drugs in the valley: There is a constant infiltration of drugs by Pakistan via the Valley’s Kupwara and Baramulla districts, less-used other drugs such as brown sugar, cocaine, and marijuana are also readily available within the Valley and even in parts of Jammu.

Drug addiction in Kashmir

• Valley is slowly becoming a drug hub: The Kashmir Valley is slowly becoming a drug hub in Northern India, having more than 67,000 drug abusers, of which 90 percent are heroin addicts, using more than 33,000 syringes daily.
• Emerged as country’s top drug affected region: With 2.5 percent of the population using drugs, Kashmir has emerged as the country’s top-drug-affected region, ahead of Punjab, where 1.2 percent of the population is reportedly addicted to drug abuse.
• Residents affected: In November 2022, the state-level narcotic coordination committee meeting chaired by the Chief Sectary revealed that at least six lakh residents were affected by drug-related issues in Jammu and Kashmir.
• Increasing crime rate: Increasing on average, INR 88,000 are spent by a drug abuser in the Valley yearly, increasing Kashmir’s crime rate.

Reasons for this situation

• Collapse of age-old social discipline: A significant reason for such an alarming situation is the near-total collapse of the Valley’s age-old informal social discipline and control mechanisms enforced by village elders.
• Attack on cultural core: Pakistan’s nefarious attack on the Valley’s cultural core has rendered this traditional mechanism of social control ineffective.
• Few contributes in social degradation: The village elders have also often worked hand-in-glove with Pakistan’s evil designs by remaining silent and endorsing the societal degradation.

Jammu and Kashmir police and war against drugs

• Security agencies have trained their focus on drug peddlers: Security agencies in Jammu and Kashmir are known for anti-terror operations. They have successfully created a synergy with the local administration to sabotage Pakistan’s activities and allied forces within the Valley. With Pakistan-sponsored insurgency receding, the security agencies have trained their focus on drug peddlers.
• Security agencies in action: In 2022, under Narcotic Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the police registered 1,021 cases and arrested 1700 drug peddlers, including 138 notorious peddlers. During the same time, the security agencies seized enormous quantities of contraband, including 212 kilograms of charas, 56 kilograms of heroin, 13 kilograms of brown sugar, 4.355 tonnes of poppy straw and 1.567 tonnes of fukki.
• Busted narco terror modules: The security agencies also busted many narco-terror modules and arrested 36 persons with huge catches of drugs, arms, ammunition, and money.
• Investigation revealed drugs smuggled from Pakistan: In December 2022, police busted a Pakistan-based narcotics module and arrested 17 persons, including five police officials and some political activists. Investigations revealed that over five kilograms of narcotics valued at INR 5 crore were smuggled from Pakistan in three months.
• Launched Nasha-Mukt Bharat Abhiyan: The local administration has also launched the Nasha-Mukt Bharat Abhiyan an initiative started by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on 15 August 2020 to eradicate the menace of drug addiction in 272 districts across India. This programme has conducted large-scale awareness programmes in colleges, universities, and within communities.

Way ahead

• The Kashmiri society needs to have an internal interlocution and take a serious look at Pakistan’s policies to foment trouble, especially through narco-terrorism.
• Kashmir’s elders and religious leaders through mosques need to get involved in the war against drugs and guide the youth to engage meaningfully with the spate of developmental activities undertaken by the national and Union territory government following the abrogation of Article 370.
• The government should also initiate and enable public-private partnerships, where local police, military, paramilitary, and citizen bodies act in harmony to make Kashmir free of narco-terror and Pakistan-implemented culture of violence.

Conclusion

• With arms and terror infiltration becoming difficult, Pakistan has now resorted to drug trafficking to destroy Kashmir’s youth. Creating a working synergy between Kashmir’s traditional and formal social control system can go a long way in addressing the drug menace.

Mains question

Q. With arms and terror infiltration becoming difficult, Pakistan has now resorted to drug trafficking to destroy Kashmir’s youth. Discuss.

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Context

• The spectre of terrorist violence looms large over the world. With the technological advancement terrorists, criminals, weapons and funds are also able to move across national boundaries easily. India is increasingly playing a leading role in curbing the terror financing.

What is Terror Financing?

• Terrorist financing encompasses the means and methods used by terrorist organizations to finance their activities.
• This money can come from legitimate sources, for example from profits from businesses and charitable organizations.
• However, terrorist groups can also get their funds from illegal activities such as trafficking in weapons, drugs or people, or kidnapping for ransom.
• Nations like Pakistan has stated policy of supporting cross-border terrorism in India through global funding.

What are the channels of free flow of funds?

• The global flow of funds has three traditional channels:

1. Direct smuggling of cash: First, direct smuggling of cash through international borders.
2. Use of Hawala: Second, the use of hawala networks.
3. Banking Networks: Third, banking networks including SWIFT and other international channels.

• Use of new technologies: But now swift technological developments in areas of blockchain or cryptocurrencies which transcend national boundaries and international currency systems have emerged as a new channel for financing terrorist and other illegal activities.

What are the identified sources of funds used by Terrorist organizations?

• Legal financial activities: Terrorist organizations raise money through several sources like travel agencies, money changers, real estate, retail outlets, NGOs, charitable trusts and even from state sponsors.
• Sourced form Criminal activities: Terrorists also derive funding from a variety of criminal activities ranging in scale and sophistication from low-level crime to organized fraud or narcotics smuggling or illegal activities in failed states and other safe havens.
• For instance: Declassified files seized during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad hideout also revealed terror financing related documents.

What steps could be taken to uproot terror financing methods?

• Identifying the funding requirements: The first step in identifying and forestalling the flow of funds to terrorists is to understand the funding requirements of modern terrorist groups.
• Understanding the ideology: The costs associated not only with conducting terrorist attacks, but also with developing and maintaining a terrorist organisation and its ideology are significant. Funds are required to promote a militant ideology, pay operatives and their families, arrange for their travel, train new members, forge documents, pay bribes, acquire weapons and stage attacks.
• Tracing the methods of fund flow: Terrorists use a wide variety of methods to move money within and between organisations, including the financial sector, physical movement of cash by couriers, and movement of goods through the trade system. Charities and alternative remittance systems have also been used to disguise terrorist movement of funds.
• Monitoring the ambiguous financial intelligence: Only accurate and well linked financial intelligence can reveal the structure of terrorist groups and also the activities of individual terrorists. Of late, such financial intelligence from the private sector has also given significant clues to foil terrorist acts.

How India is leading the battle against terror financing?

• India’s continues efforts: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in all his international speeches spoken at length on this. India’s efforts in taking this momentum forward need to be appreciated.
• India actively providing platform for various assemblies: Recently, the 90th Interpol General Assembly held in New Delhi, followed by a special session of UN Security Council’s Counter Terrorism in late October. In the third week of November, India will host another global conference focussed only on Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT).
• CTC adopted Delhi Declaration: The Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) unanimously adopted the Delhi Declaration on countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes. The declaration aims to cover the main concerns surrounding the abuse of drones, social media platforms, and crowdfunding, and create guidelines that will help to tackle the growing issue.
• India will host ‘No Money for Terror’ Conference: The Ministry of Home Affairs will organise the Third Ministerial ‘No Money for Terror’ Conference. where participants from 75 countries expected to attend the conference. The conference that was first held In Paris in 2018, followed by Melbourne in 2019.

What are the international efforts to tackle the menace of terror financing?

• Foundation of FATF: Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was formed in 1989 as a means of bringing order and implementing standards to the monetary system in the world with regard to terror finance and money laundering.
• Adopting the resolutions with time: It was the 2001 terrorist attacks that changed the way security agencies looked at terror financing. The UNSCR resolution 1267 in 1999 and UNSCR resolution 1373 in 2001 formed the bedrock of the financial sanctions’ regime for terrorist organisations and individuals.
• FATF’s Grey listing: One of the key reasons for Pakistan being placed on the FATF Grey List from 2018 to 2022 was its open defiance of those designations. Only after the FATF’s grey listing open terrorist activities stop and the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan declined to some extent.
• UNSC sanctions and designations: It is pertinent to understand that the FATF has developed its entire paradigm around the word risk. It used the United Nations Security Council sanctions against terrorists and terrorist organizations to begin to evolve a complex body of documentation in order to assess technical compliance and effectiveness of countries in implementing those UN designations. Eight of the nine UN designated terrorists were arrested and convicted in a major testimony to the success of the UN sanctions regime.

Conclusion

• The UN Security Council has sought to increase efforts against terror financing. It is only through inclusive efforts that this complex issue can be addressed. India’s hosting of the “No money for terror” conference later this month should go a long way in focusing on the issue of state sponsored terror financing.

Mains Question

Q. With the technological advancement terrorists, criminals, weapons and funds are also able to move across national boundaries easily. Discuss what steps can be taken at national and international level to curb the menace of terror financing?

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