No one in India
was surprised when Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai was arrested by US authorities in
July this year on the grounds of colluding with the ISI to influence American
opinion on the Kashmir issue. In fact,
according to informed views in India,
the US government was
aware of Fai’s connections with the Pakistan government much
earlier, and the timing of the arrest of Fai only confirmed the downward
spiral of US-Pakistan relations. The FBI arrested Ghulam Nabi Fai on 19
July 2011 for allegedly working secretly for Pakistan's
ISI to lobby and influence the US
government on the Kashmir conflict, in
violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Fai was born in Badgam district of Kashmir, and was an early sympathizer of
the Jamaat-e-Islami of Kashmir. He did his
graduation from Srinagar’s Sri Pratap
College and his Masters from the Aligarh Muslim University.
After a stint in Saudi Arabia,
he moved to the US in
1977 and got his PhD in mass communications from Temple University, Pennsylvania.
He became a US
citizen in 1990. There are reports that he was a member of the
Jamaat-e-Islami during his college days and knew Muhammad Yusuf Shah aka
Syed Salahudin, Chief of the Hizbul Mujahideen. His arrest and conviction
has been condemned by Syed Ali Shah Gilani, leader of the hard line
Hurriyat faction, which would confirm the above background.
It may be recalled that the Pakistani Army and the ISI had initially
supported the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, which was spear-heading the
movement for independence. The attacks on the Kashmiri Pandits, and other
selected targets in Kashmir in 1989-90 by
the militants of the JKLF were the brainwork of the ISI. When they could
not influence the aim of the JKLF, which was independence for Kashmir, the ISI stopped funding, training and arming
their cadres. The ISI thereafter focused on training and arming the Hizbul
Mujahideen, which was the militant wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, and whose
aim was to merge Kashmir with Pakistan. The attack on the
JKLF cadres by the Hizbul Mujahideen in the early 1990s was to eliminate
them from the scene completely on account of the ideological differences.
The funding of Ghulam Nabi Fai, a Kashmiri from Budgam and a US citizen,
needs to be seen in this background. If the ISI has been funding him all
this while, it can only be because he was playing their game, and not
because he was pursuing the so-called cause of Kashmir’s
independence. Fai was charged along with a Pakistani American associate
named Zaheer Ahmad for getting illegal funding for the Kashmir American
Council from Pakistan.
Neil MacBride, the attorney handling Fai’s case, said that Fai “is accused
of a decades-long scheme with one purpose - to hide Pakistan’s involvement
behind his efforts to influence the US government’s position on Kashmir,
his handlers in Pakistan allegedly funneled millions through the Kashmir
Center to contribute to U.S. elected officials, fund high-profile
conferences, and pay for other efforts that promoted the Kashmiri cause to
decision makers in Washington.” “For the last 20 years, Mr. Fai
secretly took millions of dollars from Pakistani intelligence and lied
about it to the U.S.
government,” MacBride said. “As a paid operative of ISI, he did the bidding
of his handlers in Pakistan
while he met with US elected officials, funded high-profile conferences,
and promoted the Kashmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington.” He was reportedly directed
by the ISI and was in touch with them 4000 times in the last 3 years. The
prosecutors also alleged that Kashmiri American Council was run by elements
of Pakistani government including the ISI and that Fai had received at
least US$4 million from the government of Pakistan.
In a plea bargaining agreement, Fai admitted that he routinely submitted
his strategy plans and budgets to ISI, specifically to a contact named
Javeed Aziz Khan, also known as ‘Brigadier Abdullah’. As per reports, Khan
used to chastise Fai for making decisions without the ISI’s approval.
Reports also indicate that Fai admitted that in December 2008, he had
submitted a plan to the ISI outlining his strategy to secure congressional
support for pressuring the White House to support Kashmiri independence. As
he planned the agenda for his 2009 Peace Conference, Khan sent Fai a list
of 18 suggested topics. Of the 10 sessions eventually included in the
conference agenda, six were taken directly from Khan’s suggestions. No
further proof is needed of Ghulam Nabi Fai’s close working relationship
with the ISI. He took US
citizenship in 1990, at the height of the anti-India movement in Kashmir. What needs investigation is whether he took
the US
citizenship on the ISI’s bidding to strengthen their case through an
Indian-born Kashmiri. Dawood Gilani had changed his name in 2006 to David
Headley similarly on the ISI’s bidding to enable him to work for them under
cover in India.
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