New Delhi: India will aim to keep the spotlight firmly on the inadequate steps taken by Pakistan to curb funding to militant and terrorist groups operating from within its borders in a week-long meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) starting in Paris on Sunday.

India’s move to keep Pakistan in the dock comes as terrorist attacks in Kashmir seem to be spiking. In the past week alone, there were two major consecutive terrorist attacks—one on a military camp at Sunjwan in Jammu and near a paramilitary camp at Karan Nagar in Kashmir. India blames them on two Pakistan-based terrorist groups—the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

FATF is an intergovernmental body based in Paris that sets global standards for fighting illicit finance. At its 18-23 February plenary meet, it could place Pakistan again in a “grey list" for not complying with the global anti-terrorist financing regulations. This follows the US and Britain putting forward a motion focussing on Pakistan’s non-compliance earlier this month and then persuading France and Germany to co-sponsor it, a Reuters news report said.

Pakistan was previously on the FATF watch list between 2012 to 2015. And to prevent its being put on the watch list again, Islamabad has been scrambling in recent weeks, given that any such move could hurt its economy. Accessing funds from international markets for example, would become tougher for Islamabad, said an Indian official, who declined to be named.

News reports from Pakistan last week said President Mamnoon Hussain approved an ordinance to amend a section of the country’s Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), giving law enforcers the power to act against terrorists and organizations proscribed by the United Nations Security Council. Following this, the Rawalpindi district administration took control of a seminary and four dispensaries run by Hafiz Saeed, the chief of the LeT, that India accuses of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack. Prior to this, Pakistani authorities also ordered a freeze of the assets of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), previously run by Hafiz Saeed, said a report in the Dawn newspaper.

New Delhi, however, was not impressed.

“You know that he (Hafiz Saeed) is a proscribed UN designated terrorist and he is also prime organizer of Mumbai terror attack," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar told reporters in New Delhi on Friday. “It is quite surprising that it took Pakistan 10 years to figure out which was known by the entire world that he is a terrorist," he said. “In any case, I think the timing of such declaration of Hafiz Saeed as a terrorist is very suspect. We will have to see if they are willing to walk the talk and take concrete measures against terrorists and terror outfits which are operating from the soil of Pakistan," Kumar added.

On the possible “grey listing" of Pakistan, Kumar said, “this happens because the commitment which was given by Pakistan on the action which it was supposed to take that has not happened." He was referring to an undertaking given by Pakistan at the FATF’s last meeting in November where the international body had issued a resolution calling attention to Pakistan’s support to the LeT, the JeM and affiliated groups like Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

“We have shared our views with the member countries of FATF," Kumar said, adding: “We of course would like to ensure through this that the government of Pakistan takes effective measures in letter and spirit to curb terror financing, to curb fund raising activity of UN designated and other terror entities and individuals which are operating from their soil."

While punitive action on Pakistan seemed near certain, New Delhi was keeping a wary eye on the possibility of China coming to Pakistan’s rescue. In recent years, China has put repeated blocks on India’s attempts to get Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar labelled a terrorist by the United Nations Security Council despite a UN ban on his group. And this has happened despite Indian appeals to China. In recent weeks, Pakistan has despatched its envoys to many Western countries as well as Russia to garner support ahead of the FATF meet.

“Let us see how things go. At this point, we know we have a case", said the second official cited above.

“My sense is that the FATF doesn’t go by consensus" like the UN Security Council where one veto jettisons the majority view, said C.U. Bhaskar, director of the New Delhi-based think tank Society for Policy Studies. “The FATF meet in a sense is a litmus test for China which describes itself as a responsible power," he said noting the JeM had over the weekend claimed responsibility for the Sunjuwan attack. “If China blatantly supports Pakistan which is seen as providing shelter to terrorist groups, then it casts a huge shadow over its claim to be a credible power on the global stage," Bhaskar said.

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