Terror funds targeting stock markets: Shinde

India has sought international help in curbing the menace of terrorism that has now started targeting stock markets and financial institutions in a way that would one day lead to the destabilisation of these institutions.

Speaking at the Interpol General assembly in Rome, India's minister of home affairs Sushil Kumar Shinde today expressed concern over terror groups investing in stock markets through spurious companies.

''It is a cliché to say that terror-funding is the lifeblood of terrorism. Credible intelligence suggests that terrorist outfits are investing in stock markets through spurious companies, setting up fictitious businesses and laundering money. The utmost importance of detecting the sources of such finance including the fake currency variant, its conduits, modus-operandi and stanching its flow cannot be lost on us. Here again the Interpol has to play a very crucial role, '' Shinde said.

He said tracing the origins of such terror finance as well as fake currencies, including the fake currency variant, its conduits, modus-operandi and stemming the flow of such funds are of utmost importance.

Shinde said India has adopted a system that gives primacy to dialogue, democratic political processes and the rule of law to counter terrorism. The country deals with terrorism within the ambit of this structure, he said.

"To be effective, the fight against terrorism has to be long term, comprehensive and sustained. Strengthening of international cooperation is vital to ensure that action is not restricted simply to the perpetrators but also encompassed States, which sponsor, support or provide safe haven to terrorists," he said.

For this, he said, international cooperation on matters relating to terrorism effected through the mechanism of Interpol is of great import.

India has been a member of the Interpol since 1949, he added.