NEW DELHI: The US State Department decision to proscribe the four splinter groups of Pakistan-based LeT terror outfit has had little or no impact on the LeT campaign to raise money under the guise of charity to finance its terrorist activities, it has emerged.
An Intelligence Bureau(IB)input has warned the government agencies to keep a watch on the activities of Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF)in J&K, which has intensified its fund drive in the last one week.
FIF is an offshoot of Jamat-ud Dawa(JuD),the political arm of LeT, which has been included on the US State Department list of global terrorist organisations. Three other front outfits of LeT--Al-Anfal Trust, Tehrik-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool and Tehrik-e-Tahafuz Qibla Awwal-- were also added to the list of the foreign terrorist organisations.
Sources said the JuD and its affiliates had raised more than `350 crore in funds from various countries, including India. IB suspects that the money collected in the name of humanitarian aid is being diverted by the JuD for financing the terror activities.
The agency is also surprised at the online penetration of these terror outfits saying that despite being designated as foreign terror groups, the JuD and its founder Hafiz Saeed continue to spread the anti-India rhetoric via the social media platforms headquartered in the US.
Saeed, a global terrorist wanted by Washington, also has a twitter handle while the JuD too maintains a website and a twitter account. Report suggested that following the State Department ban, there have been a slew of activities by Lashkar’s front organisations, including the JuD and Tehrik-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool to counter the move by floating a few more charity organisations to camouflage their real activities.
Last week, the US State Department revealed that LeT founded by Saeed had claimed responsibility for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks that killed at least 163 people. Besides, it said the LeT had carried out the May 23 attack on the Indian Consulate at Herat in Afghanistan.
The LeT was behind the multiple terror strikes in 2011, most of which had occurred in Kashmir. In 2012, it had also owned up responsibility for the attack on an Army convoy in J&K that killed one civilian and injured two others. In April 2012, Obama administration in the US had announced a bounty of $10 million for information leading to the capture of Saeed over his alleged involvement in the terrorist strikes, including the Mumbai carnage.