"Terrorism Survives On...": Asaduddin Owaisi To NDTV On Op Sindoor Outreach

Asaduddin Owaisi, MP from Hyderabad and member of the government's all-party global outreach delegation on Operation Sindoor, told NDTV today that all four nations he visited have had a taste of terrorism and have close relations not just with Pakistan but India as well. Mr Owaisi was part of Jay Panda's team that went to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria and Bahrain.  

Asked about all four nations standing by Pakistan earlier in terms of funding and OIC (the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) vis-a-vis efforts to place Pakistan in the FATF grey list, in an exclusive interview to NDTV, Mr Owaisi said the government would know better regarding that.

"Our responsibility was to put forward in front of all these four countries that terrorism survives on this ideology of which even devil would be shy of accepting it. And secondly, by legal money," he said. 

Giving a checklist of the legal funds Pakistan is receiving, which was also placed before the interlocutors from the four nations, Mr Owaisi  said Pakistan is getting $2 billion loan from the IMF, and "40 billion they are trying from the World Bank".

"When we went to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we had reminded them that the kingdom had given some 2 billion and now they have extended a loan of 12 billion," he said, questioning where all this money is going.

"Our presentation in front of our interlocutors was that this money is not being monitored. It is going into these core commanders, from core commanders to these terrorist groups, which in turn are killing Indians," he said.

His team, he added, had sought help bringing Pakistan under the FATF grey list as happened in 2018 and 2019. 

In this connection, he said he had also recounted Pakistan's U-turn on terrorist Sajid Mir, the main planner of 26/11 attack in Mumbai.

Pakistan had repeatedly claimed that Sajid Mir is dead. But "when this FATF meeting was being held in Germany, immediately Pakistan came up and to the surprise of everyone, not to the Indians, they said, oh, Sajid Mir is alive and he was later convicted," Mr Owaisi said.

"We also reminded them that from 2018 onwards, till 22, Pakistan was on FATF (grey list) and there was a close monitoring on their finances and all the neighboring countries were safe," he said.

"We told them all of us are victims of this terrorism and the best you can do is to ensure Pakistan is brought in FATF. We have nothing against the Pakistani people, but it is the deep state, it is the military and these terror groups who are thriving and being aided and promoted by the Pakistani army over there. They should be controlled," he added.

The 'grey list' of the Financial Action Task Force, a global anti-terror funding agency, includes nations that have fallen short of sticking to key parameters that include combating terror. 

New Delhi had earlier expressed disappointment that international agencies transferred billions in "aid" to Islamabad in the aftermath of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam and the subsequent military escalation by the Pakistan Army.