Kashmir ISI agent Ghulam Nabi Fai lobby against India in US, media
A Kashmiri youth Ghulam Nabi Fai has become and an agent of Pakistani spy agency ISI, which has assigned him on the job of lobbying against India in the US. Fai is settled in the US and has close connection with Gautam Navlakha, who is accused of plotting to kill India Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Fai is active to influence US lawmakers and influencers to further Pakistan’s agenda on Kashmir.
The intense lobbying by Fai is said to be the reason for the recent anti-India propaganda in the United States, especially from the Capitol Hill and in the media. Fai was arrested in July 2011 from Virginia for concealing the transfer of $3.5 million from the ISI to fund his lobbying efforts. He was ent to 24 months of a prison sentence in March 2012. However, he was released earlier in 2013 for his “cooperation” with US officials.
Fai has become poster boy for the anti-India Kashmiri lobby in the United States. He has organised high-profile events to lobby against the Indian government on the issue of Kashmir. He has now resumed interactions with members of the US Senate and the media and has become very active following the passage of CAA in India. He resorted to audio-video mediums across the US to highlight ‘Indian atrocities in Kashmir and against Muslims’.
Fai is the secretary-general of the Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKAF), which is headed by Ghulam Nabi Mir, president of World Kashmir Awareness Forum. WKAF leads anti-India voices in the US and openly calls for Kashmir’s secession from India.
After his arrest, Fai had confessed in the Virginia of receiving $500,000 (Rs 3 crore) in the year 2000 by the ISI to push Pakistan’s agenda. This included Rs 60 lakh for US Congress members, Rs 1.20 crore for organising conferences, Rs 35 lakh for media relations and Rs 18 lakh for organising Congress members’ trip to Kashmir. These events were organised under the banner of the Kashmiri American Council (KAC), which also goes by the name of “Kashmir Center”. The KAC is one of three “Kashmir Centers” that are actually run by elements of the Pakistani government, including Pakistan’s military intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (151), found American agency FBI.
Fai said the IS] had worked on three objectives. The first objective is to convince the US administration that self-determination in Kashmir would advance the national interests of the United States. The second one is to influence the Congress, with the House International Relations and the Senate Foreign Relations Committees being the centrepieces of KAC’s advocacy effort. And the third one talks about capturing media attention to influence the debate on Kashmir, including staging creative events that draw the press corps to the issue of Kashmir.
The Jammu and Kashmir state government had in 2012 constituted an SIT to probe the organisations and individuals in the state who were on the payroll of Fai and ISI. Uttam Chand, a 2002 batch IPS officer, who headed the SIT, was posted as SSP, Badgam. There has been not adequate progress on the SIT front and no action was taken against individuals and organisations, who were working for Fai in India.
A warrant was issued against Fai in 1980 for his involvement in anti-national activities. So Fai fled the Kashmir valley and reached Saudi Arabia from where he was sent to the US by the King Faisal Foundation which paid for his schooling and other expenses at Temple University in Pennsylvania.
How important Fai is for Pakistan can be understood from an October 2016 report prepared by a 13-member committee of the Pakistan Senate which recommended constitution of a Media Coordination Committee (MCC), comprising journalists, representatives of the Foreign Office, Ministry of Information, Parliament and intelligence to prepare counter-propaganda campaign against India and to design and promote a media strategy for continually highlighting the Kashmir issue.
