Overview of terrorist organizations

Before delving into the details of financing of terrorism, let us understand the various types of terrorist organizations and their need for funds. While perpetrators of terrorism can be classified in several ways, for the purpose of this section, we have classified them on basis of their affiliations, geographical spread and operational goals. The various categories of terrorist organizations overlap to describe a single terrorist organization and helps in identifying the motivation factor of these groups.

Non-state-supported terrorist groups: Such groups operate independently and receive no significant support from any government for intelligence, operations, and access to weapons, e.g., the Naxalites.

State-supported terrorist groups: These operate independently and receive the support of one or more government bodies for intelligence, operations, protection and access to various types of weapons.

International/Transnational terrorist groups: These have operations across the borders of their countries. They partner and work in collaboration with local/regional terrorist groups to share knowledge, plan and carry out terrorist activities on foreign soil.

Domestic terrorist groups: Such groups promote violence against the people and infrastructure in their own country. They may be provided operational support and weapons by international terrorist bodies.

Regional terrorist groups: The operations and influence of such groups are predominant in specific geographies. They may be regional affiliates of international terrorist organizations or independent entities.

Ideological terrorist groups: These groups attempt to impose their ideals on others. These ideals can be religious, political or dedicated to a particular cause such as anti- globalism, animal rights, ecology, and so on. Religious terrorist groups are motivated by religious ideologies and are most common. These perpetrator groups are dedicated to a religious cause. Terrorists associated with such organizations are trained, indoctrinated with religious teaching and even encouraged to sacrifice themselves for a religious cause. These perpetrators generally use terrorist tactics such as suicide bombing.

Economic terrorist groups: These aim to disrupt the economic stability of a country or region.