The FBI Director also discussed ongoing investigations in the attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco
Our Bureau
New Delhi
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher A Wray on Tuesday emphasized on the need to take the “partnership and cooperation” with India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) to the next level to deal with the constantly evolving challenges and threats of terrorism, and informed that his agency was “aggressively” investigating the attack on the Indian consulate in San Francisco.
The FBI chief’s statement came in a meeting with the NIA at its headquarters here in the national capital. Wray, leading a high-level FBI delegation, visited the NIA headquarters earlier in the day and held extensive discussions with NIA Director General Dinkar Gupta and senior officials of both agencies.
The FBI Director, who was on a three-day visit to India, also discussed a host of issues, including the acts and activities of terrorist-organized criminal networks, ongoing investigations in the US in the attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, investigation of cyber-terror and cyber-crimes of various kinds highlighted the NIA.
“Wray informed the NIA that the FBI was aggressively investigating the attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco,” NIA said in a statement. As per the NIA, candid and wide-ranging discussions held during the meeting with the NIA chief highlighted the active nexus between the terrorist outfits and terrorist elements with members of Organized Criminal Syndicates, which was spreading to the US as well.
Wray said that both the agencies have a lot in common and the similarities are far greater than the differences, said the NIA in a statement, adding, “on the nexus between terror actors and organized crime syndicates, Wray said that a blending of lines between terrorists and criminals was now visible in the cyberspace as well.”
“Terror incidents like 9/11 and the Mumbai attacks have changed the way in which nations respond to terror threats,” observed the FBI Director, emphasizing on the need to take the partnership and “cooperation between the FBI and the NIA to the next level to deal with the constantly evolving challenges and threats of terrorism.”
During the meeting, the NIA DG pointed out that threats in the cyber domain were increasing. Digital space was also being effectively exploited by terrorists and extremists for propagating radical views and recruitment, he said, adding that NIA was also seeing use of cryptocurrency for terrorist financing.
Christopher A Wray also held discussions with Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Praveen Sood and other senior officials in which both agencies recognized the challenges posed by organized crime networks, said the CBI in an official press statement on Monday. The statement read, “Both agencies recognized the challenges posed by organized crime networks, cyber-enabled financial crimes, ransomware threats, economic crimes and transnational crimes.”
They also discussed the need to expedite the sharing of evidence and for closer assistance in bringing criminals and fugitives to justice. It was also discussed to exchange the best practices of the FBI Academy, Quantico and the CBI Academy, Ghaziabad, the CBI statement said.
The meeting focused on strengthening the exchange of information on criminal matters, improving coordination in combating transnational crimes and sharing expertise in the investigation of technology-enabled crimes.
FBI Director Christopher A Wray while interacting with senior officers of CBI thanked CBI for the collaborative spirit and the enduring cooperation during FBI’s long relationship with the CBI. Praveen Sood welcomed the FBI Director and thanked him for his visit.
Congress MP Bittu urges strong case in US, Canada
Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu strongly attacked Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and urged the Ministry of External Affairs to put up a strong case in the US and Canada to bring the extremist perpetrators to justice.
Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha on Monday, the Ludhiana MP cited the Kanishka Air India bombings that occurred in 1985 as the Canadian authorities “ignored” the inputs shared by India.
He also said that “one-way traffic” is not good as far as bilateral relations between two countries are concerned.
Bittu said, “The FBI Director is visiting India this week…there are many conventions of diplomatic relations, bilateral relations. We respect and value our country but how will it work in case of one-way traffic?”
Referring to the efforts made by India on sending extradition requests for extremists, he said, “I have failed to understand that India has sent 26 extradition requests…But they are demanding perfect proof, absolute proof. Now, we don’t have any idea what proof they are talking about.”
