Separatist Kashmiri leader Ghulam Nabi Fai, who the FBI says is a paid agent of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), roped in several eminent Indian journalists and intellectuals during his more than two decades of high-profile operations, the Press Trust of India said.
Kashmir-born and educated at Aligarh Muslim University, Fai even managed to get them in the drafting committee of his annual event, “International Kashmir Peace Conference”. Fai, 62, was arrested by FBI from his house in Fairfax in Virginia, an affluent suburb of Washington DC, on charges of receiving hundreds and thousands of dollars from the ISI and using them for lobbying at the Capitol Hill and holding seminars and conferences.
According to the 43-page FBI affidavit submitted to a US court, the ISI not only funded his Kashmir American Council (KAC), which was run from its headquartered in Washington, but also dictated his speeches, determined who was to be invited to the conferences and even the results. The five-member drafting committee of the resolution adopted by the two-day conference from July 29 to 30, 2010 included the eminent Indian journalist and former Indian high commissioner to Britain Kuldip Nayar, former Pakistani ambassador to the US Maleeha Lodhi, according to a press release issued by Fai on July 30, 2010.
The conference, held in the prestigious Gold Room of the Rayburn House at the Capitol, was on “India-Pakistan Relations: Breaking the Deadlock over Kashmir”.
Concern: Meanwhile, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and other political leaders from Indian-held Kashmir, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan have expressed serious concern over Fai’s arrest by the US, APP reported. Kashmir Committee Chairman Fazlur Rehman reacted severely, saying the arrest was a great injustice, and that Dr Fai had rendered great services for the Kashmir cause.
Senior APHC leader, Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi and Acting JKLF Chairman Bashir Ahmad Butt in their separate statements, describing the arrest as unjustified, said Fai was highlighting the Kashmir dispute at the international level in a democratic and peaceful manner.
AJK President Raja Zulqarnain Khan said it was a great conspiracy against the struggle of the people of Kashmir. He said Fai was working peacefully for the resolution of the dispute through dialogue.
Senior PML-N leader Raja Zafarul Haq expressed serious concerns over Fai’s arrest and said he was one of the leaders who wanted a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute.