NEW DELHI: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has condemned the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam that left 26 people dead in targeted killings, in what is seen as a rare comment by it on such gruesome acts.A statement issued by the anti-terror financing watchdog said, “FATF notes with grave concern and condemns the brutal terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22, 2025. This, and other recent attacks, could not occur without money and the means to move funds between terrorist supporters.”FATF’s comments come at a time when India has approached the agency, set up in 1989, to act against Pakistan for its continued support to terrorist activities in India, including the latest Pahalgam attack.

Soon after the Pahalgam attack, the Indian govt began a campaign against multilateral assistance to Pakistan and sought to choke funding by seeking to get it back on FATF’s ‘grey list’, from which it only emerged barely three years ago.We must be united, no single authority or country can combat terrorism alone: FATFPakistan was on the ‘grey list’ till 2022 where it was put through enhanced scrutiny of its global financial transactions for not adhering to adequate safeguards in its financial system to combat money laundering and terror financing.Calling for joint action by the global community against terror sponsors, FATF said, “No single company, authority, or country can combat this challenge alone. We must be unified against the scourge of global terrorism. Because terrorists need to succeed only once to achieve their goal, while we have to succeed every time to prevent it.”It further said since terrorism continued to threaten societies and citizens around the world, FATF supported over 200 jurisdictions within its global network to build and enhance their counter-financing of terrorism (CFT) measures, including through the strategic use of financial intelligence – making this one of the most powerful instruments for dismantling terror financing networks.The agency stressed on FATF’s enhanced focus on the effectiveness of measures countries have put in place through its mutual evaluations, to ensure a robust framework was developed for combating terror financing.FATF said it will soon release a comprehensive analysis of terror financing, compiling cases provided by “our global network”.