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In what may be seen as worst fears of National Security Advisor M K Narayanan coming true, a US report on terrorism has said pro-Pakistan Jaish-e-Mohammed was investing in commodity market and real estate to raise funds for its terrorist activities.
Country Terrorism Report prepared by the US State Department said JeM, led by Maulana Masood Azhar, who was released by India in exchange of hijacked passengers in 1999, had withdrawn funds from bank accounts in anticipation of asset seizures by the Pakistan government.
The funds were invested "in legal business such as commodity market, real estate and production of consumer goods," the report said.
Narayanan, at a conference in Munich in February this year, had said the manipulation of stock exchanges was the new modus operandi used by terrorist groups to raise funds for their operations.
"Isolated instances of terrorist outfits manipulating the stock markets to raise funds for their operations have been reported. Stock exchanges in Mumbai and Chennai have, on occasions, reported that fictitious or notional companies were engaging in stock market operations," he said while addressing the 43rd Conference on Security Policy in Munich.
The terrorist groups are involved in legitimate business enterprises like restaurants, real estate agencies and shipping and use part of their proceeds to siphon off funds for their terrorist activities, he had said.
The US report also said that Al-Qaeda was also suspected to be providing funds to Jaish.