LeT investing through Karachi Stock Exchange

New Delhi: Terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba has invested large amounts of illicit money in various Pakistani business entities through its front Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Karachi Stock Exchange to get high returns to fund its activities. Official sources said on Thursday that intelligence inputs suggested that JuD has pumped the money in Pakistani stock market through various methods.

All the funds were given to Jamaat-ud-Dawa by LeT which was responsible for Mumbai terror attack of November, 2008 and various other terror strikes in India, sources said. A few Western intelligence agencies were believed to have received similar information about JuD's activities in Karachi Stock Exchange and shared it with New Delhi, they said.

Last fortnight, addressing the Interpol General Assembly in Rome, Shinde had said stock markets have emerged as a new mode for terrorists to route their money into the economy and leverage it to carry out their nefarious designs. "Credible intelligence suggests that terrorist outfits are investing in stock markets through spurious companies, setting up fictitious businesses and laundering money," he said.

Sources said the information came following arrest of a few couriers who had confessed that money was being sent from Gulf countries through Western Union Money Transfer. In September, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India had said 35 stock brokers have been probed by it for possible lapses in controls related to money laundering and terror financing.

The inspections by SEBI followed actions taken by stock exchanges and depositories against more than 300 market entities for violations and discrepancies related to Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML and CFT) regulations in the 2011-12 fiscal.

Last year, government had told Parliament that it has received information about 10 suspected instances of terrorist financing using the stock exchanges between 2009-11. The Financial Intelligence Unit had received five suspicious transaction reports (STRs) during the 2009-10, four during 2010-11 and one case till November 2011.

The STRs, suspected to be linked to terrorist financing, have been received from intermediaries of stock market such as stock brokers, asset management companies, etc, and disseminated to intelligence agencies by the FIU.