Financial Action Task Force (FATF) applauded France in its mutual evaluation report released on Tuesday for acting against Maulana Masood Azhar and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) after the Pulwama attacks in 2019.
The report summarises the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) measures in place in France as on the date of the on-site visit from June 28 to July 258 last year.
On February 14, 2019, a terror attack was carried out in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir by a suicide bomber resulting in the death of 40 CRPF personnel. The suicide bomber, identified as JeM’s Adil Ahmed Dar, rammed his vehicle into a bus with the CRPF convoy. “After a suicide attack carried out by the terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is affiliated to Al-Qaeda, that killed 45 officers of the Central Reserve Police Force in Pulwama in India on 14 February 2019, France adopted a national freezing measure on 15 March against Mohamed Masood Azhar Alvi, the founder and leader of that organisation. France subsequently proposed a draft European listing, while supporting a United Nations 1267 listing, which was obtained on 1st May 2019,” the FATF said in the report.
The report also analyses the level of compliance with the FATF 40 Recommendations and the level of effectiveness of France’s AML/CTF system and provides recommendations on how the system could be strengthened.
As per the report, France plays an active role in proposing designations on the EU and UN TFS lists. France is depriving terrorists, terrorist organisations and their financiers of their assets to a large extent and by various means, especially asset freezing measures and confiscation decisions.