NEW DELHI: Financial sanctions against entities named by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for their links to terrorism and terror financing should be imposed “without delay” and within 24 hours under the UAPA and a law against use of weapons of mass destruction, the government has directed regulatory and probe agencies.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the federal agency tasked to detect money laundering and black money in the country’s economic channels, has been made the nodal agency for identifying, notifying and initiating legal action against such entities under section 12A of The Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Act, 2005, also known as the WMD Act.

India, as per official records, enacted the law as per its commitment to the country specific efforts under UNSC resolution 1718 (2006) and 2231 (2015), and their successor resolutions, as mandated under section 2 of United Nations (Security Council) Act, 1947.

The department of revenue (DoR) under the Union finance ministry issued a directive to the country’s regulatory, investigative, intelligence gathering and state police agencies last month explaining the procedure for the implementation of the 2005 law that aims to prohibit the proliferation of “weapons of mass destruction”, which stands for

The law is to affirm India’s commitment to prevent a non-state actors & terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction

any biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.

The law is a tool to affirm India’s commitment to prevent a non-state actor and a terrorist from acquiring weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems.

The Centre, early this year, had designated the FIU director as the central nodal officer (CNO) under section 12A of the WMD Act.