Centre's FIU to help Pb police in tracing sources of terror funding

The Punjab Police will now get support of the Centre's Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) in tracing sources of terror funding from foreign countries.

The decision in this regard was taken on Wednesday during a day-long regional conference on the anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism, organised by the FIU-IND here at Mohali, a state government release said.

With this decision, the FIU-IND and the Punjab Police will coordinate closely to overcome the challenge posed by technology in crime and terror financing, besides ensuring financial intelligence in terror financing from international sources, it further said.

The FIU-IND was set up by the Government of India as the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions.

It is an independent body reporting directly to the Economic Intelligence Council headed by the finance minister. It has been mandated to provide quality financial intelligence for safeguarding the financial system from the abuses of money laundering, terrorism financing and other economic offences.

The conference also deliberated on capacity building through the creation of synergy among various states and regions to effectively deal with terror and new-age crimes.

It focused on strengthening response mechanism in the light of emerging terrorist threats and terror funding.

More than 65 representatives from different state police organisations from the region and central law enforcement agencies participated in the conference, the release said.

The underlying objective of the conference was to strengthen the partnership between law enforcement agencies and the FIU-IND for a comprehensive approach to tackle the menace of financing of terrorism, money laundering and organised crimes.

Punjab Director General of Police (Intelligence) V K Bhawra highlighted importance of the state police in tackling terrorism as first responder in the event of any terrorist attack.

With the advent of information technology, the process of investigation had become more complex, making it imperative to promote cooperation and synergy between the state police forces and central agencies, he said.

Highlighting the role of FIU-IND in furnishing targeted intelligence to help solve important terror cases, terror funding cases and some other high profile economic offences, Bhawra emphasised the importance of a strong coordination mechanism of law enforcement agencies and the FIU-IND to prevent and investigate money laundering as well as terror financing cases.