The Indian government is under pressure to retaliate against hostile neighbour Pakistan, accusing the former of sponsoring the terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, which saw the murder of more than 28 civilians, including international tourists.
India and Pakistan are both nuclear-powered countries, and have been at war with four examples over the past 75 years for geopolitical reasons.
However, in the last 20 years, whenever India was a victim of a terrorist attack, it has avoided a full-scale war with Pakistan, rather opting for a multifaceted approach of economic real estate, international pressure and boycott.
After the recent terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, Narendra’s Modi-led Indian government has once again considered putting global pressure on Pakistan, calling for greater surveillance and surveillance by international financial institutions and regulators, which will likely lead to a decline in foreign investment and access to global financial markets.
India’s defense was always the same. Pakistan is exploiting foreign aid to fund terrorism at the Indian border.
In that respect, crypto is undoubtedly a sector that India must look to in order to dry out the Pakistani government’s foreign investment channels.
Pakistan’s crypto adoption and secure passage for terrorist financing
Recently, the Pakistani government invited Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, to Islamabad. CZ has been appointed strategic advisor to the National Cryptocurrency Council of Pakistan as a step towards a country that adopts cryptocurrency.
In the words of Pakistan’s Finance Minister, the Cryptocourse was established with the aim of promoting foreign direct investment in Pakistan.
Also Read: Pakistan Crypto Council appoints Binance founder CZ as advisor
While there is no problem with the adoption of crypto in Pakistan at the moment, it is also an indisputable fact that cryptocurrencies have been increasingly used by terrorists in regions around the world to fund their causes.
The inherent anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies and its distributed nature ensures smooth passage of funds for malicious elements looking for sources of terrorism funding. The fact that Pakistan does not ban or regulate cryptography adds complications to maintaining surveillance of the illegal Crypto Hawara networks operating in the region.
A recent report by TRM shows that South Asia-based terrorist groups, particularly the Islamic State of Holasan (ISKP), are using Monero as a “safe” cryptocurrency that prefers. Furthermore, TRM’s report proved that terrorist groups increasingly prefer Tether (USDT) Stablecoins for donations.
The investigation report also revealed that several fundraising campaigns in 2022 had sought cryptocurrency donations for families of murdered terrorists.
India must give Pakistan two options: act on terrorist financing or FACE FATF blacklist
Pakistan was under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylist in 2022 due to several terrorist groups operating within the country and the government’s uncooperative attitude in the fight against terrorist funding and money laundering. It was only recently that Pakistan’s name was removed from the FATF grey list.
If a country is listed on the FATF’s “Black or Gray List,” it means increased surveillance and surveillance by international financial institutions and watchdogs, as well as a rapid decline in foreign investment and access to global financial markets. It was only recently that Pakistan was able to remove that name from the FATF grey list.
According to a 2022 report published on Coindesk, the FATF revealed that Pakistan does not need to ban cryptocurrency to avoid the grey list. Given the recent terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, India should either abandon its ambitious cryptocurrency adoption plan or place international pressure on Pakistan to implement strict KYC procedures on its users.
Conclusion
We are a crypto news media organization, and it is against our spirit to advocate lobbying for the adoption of encryption in any country. But in today’s age, a unified collective effort against terrorism is needed, and it’s time to realize that Pakistan can’t cherry pick the rosy side of the code, conveniently ignoring breeding in its backyards, if it doesn’t walk the lecture.
