Date: 21/11/2022
Relevance: GS3: Role of External State and Non-state Actors in creating challenges to Internal Security, Linkages of Organized Crime with Terrorism.
Key Phrases: Terrorism, Human Rights, Interpol, International consensus, Counterterrorism Engagements, Online Radicalization, Cross-border Terrorism, Permanent Communication channel, Real-time Information, Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), Mutual legal assistance, United Nations (UN) Security Council, National database on terrorism, Criminal syndicate.
Context:
- Recently, India hosted the Third Ministerial ‘No Money for Terror’ conference in New Delhi, conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Key Highlights:
- India has broadened its counterterrorism engagements in the face of the evolving threat of terrorism.
- India has also hosted two other important meetings:
- The United Nations (UN) Security Council’s special meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) in October 2022. At the end of the meeting, the Delhi Declaration was adopted.
- 90th INTERPOL General Assembly in New Delhi in October 2022.
Role of the Conference:
- Provide Platform
- The ‘No Money for Terror’ conference provides an important platform to discuss how to tackle and counter traditional and advanced means of terrorist financing.
- Forum for Establishing Cooperation
- It also offers an important forum for establishing cooperation.
- For cryptocurrencies, intelligence and law enforcement agencies will
need to step up their response to track and monitor blockchain
transactions which need better forensics, better surveillance
mechanisms, and better training.
- This again requires transnational cooperation to evolve a coordinated approach by leveraging best practices and learnings from each other.
Terrorism
- About:
- Terrorism is the systematic use of violence for intimidating populations or governments for political, religious, or ideological goals.
- As per the POTA 2002 (Prevention of Terrorism Act), Terrorist activity is one that intends to threaten the unity, security, or sovereignty of the country or strike terror in the mind of people.
- Types of Terrorism:
- Religious Terrorism:
- It is motivated by religious fundamentalism and considers violence as a divine duty.
- Narco-Terrorism:
- When narcotics cartels influence the government by systematic threats or the use of violence.
- Cyber Terrorism:
- Cyber terrorism is the use of the internet to conduct violent acts that result in, or threaten, the loss of life or significant bodily harm, in order to achieve political or ideological gains through threat or intimidation.
- Ethno National Terrorism:
- It is motivated by the creation of a separate state. For example, LTTE in Sri Lanka.
- State Sponsored Terrorism:
- When any state embraces terrorism as an instrument of its foreign policy. For example, Pakistan against India.
- Cross-border Terrorism:
- When the soil of one country is used to create terror or engage in terrorism against another country then it is called cross-border terrorism.
- Religious Terrorism:
Evolving Technology, Evolving Terrorism:
- Nebulous Character of the Terrorist Threat
- Radicalised individuals are now committing random acts of terrorist violence by leveraging the power of the internet and social media to disseminate their propaganda and extremist acts.For Example, the Udaipur Kanhaiya Lal tailor's murder case of June 2022 represents the emergence of this amorphous nature of terrorism.
- Onion Router (TOR)-enabled Darknet
- Terrorists and terror suspects have expanded the use of The Onion Router (TOR)-enabled darknet for propaganda, and recruitment on encrypted chat forums and platforms beyond the gaze of the security agencies.
- Use of Cryptocurrencies
- On the other end of the spectrum lie methods such as the cryptocurrencies exploited by terrorist organisations to finance their operations.
Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization)
- About
- It is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime control.
- It was established in 1923 and headquartered in Lyon, France.
- CBI is India's nodal agency for Interpol.
- General Assembly
- It adopted a resolution for cooperation on financial crime and corruption, focusing on reducing and eventually eliminating illicit financial flows that provide the backbone for terrorist and criminal activities.
- Member-states are committed to strengthening their contribution to the Financial Crime Analysis File. It generates actionable intelligence and periodic threat assessments on financial crime and organized criminal activities.
- They agreed to provide access to their respective national Financial Intelligence Units to INTERPOL’s databases, including the SLTD database (travel and identity documents)
- It will help to find cases of terrorists and criminals who use fake travel documents to move across jurisdictions.
Delhi Declaration of Counter-Terrorism Committee
- The declaration announced the plans to develop a set of non-binding
guiding principles in countering the challenges that emerged from new
forms of terrorism.
- Among these will be a compilation of good practices leveraging the same set of technologies misused by terrorist organisations.
- It expressed concerns over the continued existence of safe havens—an
indirect reference to Pakistan.
- It can be interpreted as an unambiguous message of the UN’s support for India’s fight against cross-border terrorism.
- It also highlighted the criticality of choking the terrorist financing flows, which remains a persistent challenge for security agencies.
Way Forward:
- Common Definition:
- There is a need for a common definition of terrorism and terrorists to develop a comprehensive strategy for counter-terrorism.
- Combination of both Technology and Manpower:
- We require a combination of both technology and manpower to tackle the threat at the border region, correct information, and cooperation among the people are required with high training forces and better equipment to end infiltration and terrorism in the region.
- Comprehensive Solution to Hawala Issues
- Security agencies will need to focus on improving the regional and global understanding of the risks posed by hawala and its role in financing South Asian terrorist groups.
- Security agencies will have to think “out-of-box” to counter the system and discredit it.
- Simultaneously, those sections of the diaspora community that rely
on hawala for remitting money home need to be encouraged to use the
formal financial system.
- This will require coordination with stakeholders from the financial sector to reduce remittance transaction costs and eliminate remittance corridors.
- Cross-border Coordination:
- “Cross border cooperation” which is a necessary requirement to defeat cross-border terrorism.
- Permanent Communication Channel:
- Interpol should develop a permanent communication channel between counter-terror agencies where real-time information and intelligence can be shared among countries.
- Exchange of intelligence and information:
- There is a need to establish a platform for the exchange of intelligence and information among countries to counter narco-terrorism.
Conclusion:
- These global meetings allow India to strengthen counterterrorism cooperation with other security and law enforcement agencies and draw attention to its initiatives and the need to define terrorism for designing more effective counterterrorism measures.
Source: ORF-Online
Mains Question:
Describe the new forms of terrorism and the challenges associated with them. Also, suggest the measures that can be taken to counter these forms of terrorism. (200 Words).
