Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday stressed on the need to focus on organised crime, stating that "one of the sources of terror funding is organised crime."
"One of the sources of terror funding is organised crime. Organised crime should not be seen in isolation," PM Modi said while addressing the two-day 3rd edition of the 'No Money For Terror' Ministerial Conference here.
The event is being held here in the national capital after a gap of two years. The second such event was organised in Melbourne in 2019 and the first one in Paris in 2018.
"These gangs often have deep links with terrorist outfits. The money made in gun-running, drugs and smuggling is pumped into terrorism. These groups help with logistics and communication too," the PM said.
The Prime Minister also emphasised that action against organised crime is an extremely important step in the fight against terror, seeking global collaboration in the fight.
"Action against organised crime is extremely important in the fight against terror. At times, even activities like money laundering and financial crimes have been known to help terror funding. Fighting it needs global collaboration," PM Modi said.
In such a complex environment, the Prime Minister said the United Nations Security Council, Financial Action Task Force, Financial Intelligence Units, and the Egmont Group, are boosting cooperation in the prevention, detection and prosecution of illegal fund flows.
"This is helping the war against terror in many ways over the past two decades. This also helps in understanding terror funding risks," he said.
The Prime Minister further said the "dynamics of terrorism are changing now" and that "rapidly advancing technology is both a challenge and a solution".
"New kinds of technology are being used for terror financing and recruitment. Challenges from the dark net, private currencies and more are emerging. There is a need for a uniform understanding of new finance technologies. It is also important to involve the private sector in these efforts. From a uniform understanding, a unified system of checks, balances and regulations can emerge. But we must be careful about one thing. The answer is not to demonise technology. Instead, it is to use technology to track, trace and tackle terrorism," the Prime Minister said.
Modi later sought united cooperation in the fight against the terrorism, saying "Today, cooperation is needed not only in the physical world but also in the virtual world too".
"The infrastructure used for cyber terrorism and online radicalisation is distributed. Some also offer weapons training from a remote location and online resources. Communications, travel, and logistics there are many links in the chain in different countries. Each country can and must act against the part of the chain within the reach."
He said many different nations have their own legal principles, procedures and processes, and that sovereign nations have a right to their own systems.
However, PM Modi said we must also be careful not to allow extremists to misuse differences between systems.
"This can be prevented through deeper coordination and understanding between governments. Joint operations, intelligence coordination and extradition help the fight against terror. It is also important that we jointly address the problem of radicalisation and extremism. Anyone who supports radicalisation should have no place in any country."
( With inputs from ANI )
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