Hawala and Terror Financing in the Indian Subcontinent 

ABSTRACT 

This chapter explores the practice of hawala as informal funds transfer system in South Asia and how it facilitates terrorist funding and money laundering activities in the region. It also briefly examines the regulatory mechanism in place to control the hawala remittance system. For quick and safe delivery of cash to the designated recipient, the hawala depends on three aspects: sender, operator and receiver. While hawala and other informal methods are used for the swift and safe transfer of funds, its anonymity, and minimal paper trail have also made it vulnerable to abuse by criminal and terrorist groups. Dawood Ibrahim-led criminal cartel's association with crime and terrorism in India is well documented. Concerted international efforts against terrorism financing and money laundering through hawala have been incremental. However, despite such recent developments in international and national financial regulations against the system, South Asia still remains a hub for illicit hawala operations.

Scott N Romaniuk, Christian Kaunert, Amparo Pamela H Babe (Ed), "Countering Terrorist and Criminal Financing:Theory and Practice", CRC Press,  Boca Raton, 2023. 

DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003092216 / eBook ISBN 9781003092216/