India seeks US help to crack Pakistan terror fund trail

India has initiated the process to corner Pakistan globally regarding its patronage to the Al Rehmat Trust, a front for the terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which carried out the attack at the Pathankot airbase in January this year.

India has approached select European countries and the U.S., who are part of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to seek the bank transaction details of the Al Rehmat Trust, which operates a dozen offices in Pakistan. Indian agencies suspect that the Trust, founded by Jaish chief, Maulana Masood Azhar, has over Rs. 100 crore in its kitty and the money is used for funding and training terrorist modules.

The National Investigation Agency had sent a letter rogatory (judicial request) to Pakistan in April this year, seeking the donation and bank details of the trust.

“It’s been more than four months since we sent the LR . Since Pakistan has not bothered to reply, we have now sent a request to European countries where the host companies facilitating the bank transactions are headquartered. This has been possible as India is a full member of FATF,” said a senior Home Ministry official.

Policy-making body

The FATF is a policy-making body and its objectives are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

Online fund drive

During the course of investigations into the Pathankot attack, the NIA had found that the JeM was running two websites — rangonoor.com and alqalaamonline.com — and the payments to host the websites were made by a person identified as Abdul Hasan associated with Al Rehmat Trust. The official explained that the Trust collects donations at multiple levels.

“They ask people to contribute voluntarily to the Trust and there are several Pakistan-based businessmen who also donate generously to this organisation. As per our information, the Trust also receives contributions from several other countries,” he said.