Three years after India demonetised high currency notes to crackdown on black money, Pakistan has started producing, smuggling and circulating better quality Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) to finance illicit activities and militant groups, including the Lashkar-e-Toiba and its affiliates, Jaish-e-Mohammad. Senior officials reveal that a large amount of counterfeit currency from Pakistan is making its way into India using pre-2016 system and infrastructure- of gangs, their syndicate, channels, and routes. Most surprisingly, Pakistan has been misusing diplomatic channels in Nepal,Bangladesh and other countries to bring and distribute consignments of Fake Indian Currency Notes. Sources reveal that Pakistan`s secret agency, the ISI,manages to create this currency of better visual quality than the earlier photocopied notes.In May 2019, a recently released D-company associate, Younus Ansari, was arrested with three Pakistani nationals at Kathmandu Airport with ahuge consignment of Indian currency totalling Indian Rs 76.7 million.

The temerity of the couriers was obvious from the fact thatthe stash was not even concealed, as in the past, but was loosely dumped intochecked-in baggage.The consignor was notorious Pakistan-based FICN smugglerRazzak Marfani. Interestingly, the same Younus was arrested a few years ago inNepal for conspiring to implement a hit-job on an Indian diplomat in Kathmandu.

On September 22, police in Indian Punjab seized FICN worthRs.1 million from Sikh radical elements belonging to the Khalistan ZindabadForce (KZF), which had also received five AK 47 Rifles, 30 bore pistols, ninehand grenades, five satellite phones, two mobile phones and two wireless sets,sent across the international border with Pakistan, through Drones.Again, onSeptember 25, police in Dhaka seized FICN worth Indian Rs. 4.95 million.

A Dubai-based individual 'Salman Shera' had sent the parcelto Sylhet in Bangladesh, which was sent to Dhaka via a courier service `SAPoribahan.`The individuals apprehended revealed that from Sylhet theconsignment was headed to Sreenagar Upazila in Munshiganj District in Dhaka.Theoriginal consignor Salman Shera is the son of Aslam Shera, a notoriousPakistan-based ISI dealer in FICN, active since the late 1990s, said seniorofficials.

Before demonetisation, the Pakistani Embassy in Kathmanduwas the nerve centre for FICN operations and used Birgunj Town as its vital transitpoint for almost all fake currency notes entering India.Sources reveal that ISIhad set up a large network of agents from Kathmandu to Birganj and all alongthe border, to push consignments of FICN from Nepal into India.

"ISI transported fake notes through the state-ownedPakistan International Airlines, or through the diplomatic bag to its Missionsin Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, and Doha", sources revealed.

They added, "From these locations, couriers broughtconsignments on PIA or other international flights to Kathmandu or Dhaka".InBangladesh, Pakistan has been misusing diplomatic channels to bring anddistribute consignments of FICN.

Mainstream Bangladeshi media is replete with incidents,wherein Pakistani nationals posted at its High Commission in Dhaka have beenexpelled, formally and informally, for ferrying FICN and for terror financingactivities.

In late 2015, Second Secretary at the Pakistan HighCommission in Dhaka Farina Arshad, was withdrawn after Idris Sheikh anoperative of the militant organization Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB) admitted tohaving links with her.Sources reveal that prior to this in January 2015, MazharKhan an Attache in the Consular Section of Pakistani Mission in Dhaka wassimilarly expelled after Bangladeshi intelligence accused him of peddling FICNand providing funds to terror outfits.

Mazhar Khan had cultivated a Bangladeshi national MujiburRahman, and had sent him to India 11 times and to Thailand 22 times in just afew years, to circulate FICN.The above Pakistani Mission officials had alsodeveloped close ties with radicalized elements in Dhaka University, officers ofPakistan International Airlines and a section of Bangladeshi nationals residingalong the border with India in places such as Lalmonirhat, Jessore, Thakurgaon,and Benapole, the main ingress points for FICN into India.The earnings fromFICN smuggling operations were further channelled to terror outfits operatingfrom Bangladesh, like Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Ansurullah Bangla Team and Jamaat Shibir.

The Financial Action Task Force`s (FATF) report on `MoneyLaundering and Terrorist Financing Related to Counterfeiting of Currency`,referred to Article 3 of the Currency Counterfeiting Convention (Geneva, 1929)which defined counterfeiting as "fraudulent making or altering ofcurrency, whatever means are employed.''

FATF Recommendation 3 designates counterfeiting currency asa predicate offence for money laundering.

It identifies money laundering and terror financing asaspects associated with counterfeit currency, and these are, in turn, relatedwith organized crime.The report categorically stated, "India has alsoreported large scale use of counterfeit currency, by both State and non-Stateactors, to assist/fund terrorist acts.

The case studies in this regard furnished by India, exposethe scale and intensity of the problem. In particular, there is evidence ofmultiple bases being used to flood the country with counterfeit notes, therebyattempting to attack the `economic security` of the country, besides using itto fund/assist specific terrorist acts".

The role of organized criminal groups in the production ofcounterfeit currency was elaborated in FATF`s 2013 report.

It cited the case of a seizure in February 2012 ofcounterfeit Indian Rupees concealed in a shipping consignment from Pakistan viaHong Kong, China to Nepal.

The report highlighted that high-quality counterfeit Indiannotes were printed in Pakistan and then smuggled into India through transitpoints at Dhaka, Bangladesh as well. The other route to smuggle FICN was bysmuggling through the India-Pakistan, India-Bangladesh and India-Nepal borders.

Production and smuggling of Fake Indian Currency Notes byPakistan exposes its nefarious designs to destablise the Indian economy andsupport terrorism.