Dawood Ibrahim's activities from 'safe haven' pose real threat: India to UNSC
United Nations:
In a veiled attack on Pakistan, India has told the UN Security Council
that Dawood Ibrahim's illegitimate activities from a "safe haven" that
refuses to acknowledge even his existence pose a real danger, as New
Delhi called for a focussed attention to address the threats by the
D-Company, the JeM and the LeT.
Terrorist
organisations are increasingly involved in lucrative criminal
activities such as trading in natural resources and human trafficking to
raise funds, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed
Akbaruddin said on Tuesday.
Similarly,
criminal groups are joining hands with terrorists and are providing
services such as counterfeiting, illicit financing, arms dealing, drug
trafficking and smuggling terrorists across borders, he said at the
Security Council debate on 'Threats to International Peace and Security:
Linkages between International Terrorism and Organised Crime'.
"In
our own region, we have seen the mutation of Dawood Ibrahim's criminal
syndicate into a terrorist network known as the D-Company.
"The
D-Company's illegitimate economic activities may be little known
outside our region, but for us, such activities as gold smuggling,
counterfeit currency, as well as arms and drug trafficking from a safe
haven that declines to acknowledge even his existence, are a real and
present danger," Akbaruddin said.
He
emphasised that the success of a collective action to "denude" the ISIS
is a pointer that the Council's "focussed attention can and does yield
results".
"A
similar degree of interest in addressing the threats posed by
proscribed individuals, such as Dawood Ibrahim and his D-Company, as
well as proscribed entities, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and
the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), listed as affiliates of al-Qaeda, under the
1267 sanctions regime, will serve all of us well," he said.
Pakistan's
Foreign Office last week said "Dawood Ibrahim is not in Pakistan", a
day after a UK court was informed that the underworld don wanted for the
deadly coordinated bombings in Mumbai in 1993 is currently in exile in
the country.
During
the ongoing extradition trial of 51-year-old Jabir Moti, a
"high-ranking member of D-Company", Westminster Magistrates' Court in
London heard that Dawood is currently in exile in Pakistan.
"The
head of D Company is Dawood Ibrahim, an Indian Muslim currently in
exile in Pakistan. Dawood Ibrahim and his brother and top lieutenant,
Anis Ibrahim, have been fugitives from India since 1993, when D Company
was implicated in coordinated bombings in Mumbai that killed more than
200 people," according to a US Attorney's affidavit for extradition read
out by Moti's barrister Edward Fitzgerald.
External
Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar has said that Pakistan's
stand that Dawood was not present in the country exposed its "double
standards".
Akbaruddin
stressed that terrorism and organised crime are both "manifestly
malicious organisms drawing sustenance from the same deadly swamp.
"At
times, they co-exist; at other times, they cooperate; and in instances,
they converge. As the world becomes more interconnected, these menacing
networks are becoming increasingly intertwined," he said.
Terrorist
and criminal groups rely on strategic recourse to unsanctioned and
illegitimate use of violence to undermine governance and development, he
told the UNSC.
"Both
lead to destabilising established state structures, thereby undermining
and threatening international peace and security," he said, adding that
revenues generated by illicit activities of terrorist and criminal
groups are moved across borders and exchanged through open networks.
Akbaruddin
asserted that this flow of resources, meant to produce violence and
terror, needs to be stopped by states working together.
"Collective inter-state efforts are required, including
at
regional and sub-regional levels. We also need to sensitise the private
and public enterprises involved in facilitating legitimate
transboundary financial flows and we should harness their support, so
that they do not fall prey to malevolent objectives, in the vein of
Osama bin Laden's string of retail honey shops," he said, in a reference
to the al-Qaeda leader's reported use of network of shops that sold
honey to provide finances for acquiring drugs and arms for the terror
network.
Akbaruddin
also called for normative efforts at the UN to be coordinated through
collaboration with other fora like the Financial Action Task Force
(FATF).
"We
believe that the FATF is playing a significant role in setting global
standards for preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist
financing. The UN needs to increase cooperation with such bodies," the
Indian diplomat said.
With
the emergence of new technologies and uncharted frontiers, Akbaruddin
said the international community's challenges in identifying new
terrorist trends, mapping links between terrorists and criminal groups
and sharing information more effectively, are growing.
"Finally,
our collective commitment to implement what we agree upon in this body
will go a long way in acting as a catalyst in pursuit of our common
good," he said.
Source: https://in.news.yahoo.com/dawood-ibrahims-activities-safe-haven-085200016.html
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