Funds collected from Karachi via ransom, extortion for banned terrorist group: report

KARACHI: A new report on the collection of funds from Karachi for a global terrorist outfit has surfaced, sources said late Thursday, and that the money collected to be used in terrorism was sent to Afghanistan.

The funds were collected as ransom and through extortion, the sources said, adding that at first, the money was collected from a minority community as well as from the Mines & Mineral Development in Balochistan.

However, following an attack on the minority community's religious site in Quetta, the extortion money was then collected from Karachi. The funds collected as ransom and through extortion were then sent to Afghanistan with the use of agents, as money laundering, and via bank accounts.

The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) took the suspected movement of cash as a test case, and consequent to a comprehensive planning process, presented it to a delegation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that recently visited Pakistan.

Sources revealed that in order to send the money to Afghanistan, some 40 bank accounts were used and once the funds were delivered, the person kidnapped used to be set free.

This case came to light through a kidnapping case in Karachi's Gulistan-e-Johar area when a sum of more than Rs10 million was received as ransom from the person who was kidnapped.

According to one estimate, almost Rs80-100 million have been sent to Afghanistan till now.

The network, operated by a global terrorist group, is spread from Karachi to Balochistan and extends into Afghanistan

It is the same group that has been involved in the suicide bombing at Civil Hospital Quetta in 2017, the 2016 shooting-and-suicide bombing attack at Balochistan Police College, the target killings in the provincial capital, and the murders of Chinese citizens.

Apart from this case, the NACTA took another funding case as a test one. It said it was gathering and aggregating information and details in this regard these days.

Both test cases were presented to the FATF delegation.

Subsequently, a crackdown against money laundering and suspicious bank accounts was commenced throughout the country, with Sindh's inspector-general of police (IGP) setting up a joint investigation team for a detailed probe in the kidnapping case.