ISI agent Fai ran Kashmir propaganda in UK also: Report

London: Kashmiri separatist Ghulam Nabi Fai, who has been charged with being an undeclared agent of ISI in the US, was also a director of a UK-based organisation, promoting Pakistani interest on Kashmir, a media report said. Fai, who heads the Washington-based Kashmiri American Council (KAC) was arrested by FBI for allegedly collaborating with Pakistan’s spy agency by “clandestinely” funneling hundreds and thousands of dollars to change the view of American lawmakers on Kashmir. [caption id="" align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“PTI”][/caption] Fai, 62, was also a director of the Justice Foundation based in Bloomsbury, which hosted events for British lawmakers to promote Pakistani interests on Kashmir, using millions of dollars of covert funding, the Daily Telegraph said. He was the director alongside three British men and two Indian nationals, one of them based in Saudi Arabia “MPs hosted events in Parliament for an organistation which has been accused of being a front for Pakistani spies, it can be disclosed,” it reported. The Justice Foundation is alleged to have been promoting Pakistani interests over Kashmir, using millions of dollars of covert funding, it said. The executive director of the foundation in London is Nazir Ahmad Shawl. The scandal follows the arrest last year of Katia Zatuliveter, a House of Commons researcher accused of being a Russian spy. US prosecutors claim that three “Kashmir Centers”, in Washington, London and Brussels, are run on behalf of “elements of the Pakistani government, including Pakistan’s military intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI).” The British organisation claims it is a “non-partisan, non-governmental organisation that seeks justice and peace for the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir, not aligning itself with any of the political parties of India or Pakistan.” The foundation hosted Maulana Fazlur Rehman, whose party the JUI is said to have links to the Taliban, during a controversial visit to Britain last year. At a two day conference at the Hilton Hotel and in the House of Commons in March 2006, messages of support and good wishes were read out from Tony Blair, then the Prime Minister and Ken Livingston, then the Mayor of London, and from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and Sir Jonathon Sacks, the Chief Rabbi. Among those who addressed the conference were the Labour MPs Martin Salter, then secretary of the all-party parliamentary group on Kashmir, and Khalid Mahmood, along with the Tory MP Humfrey Malins. At an earlier conference on the Pakistan earthquake, Hilary Benn, then the International Development Minister, was the keynote speaker. The organisation ran an event in the House of Lords last year chaired by Lord Ahmed, the Labour peer, who also registered a trip to Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir from 19 to 27 February this year in the register of member’s interests, for which the travel and accommodation was provided by Justice Foundation. A telephone number for the foundation was not connected and no one responded to an email request for comment. The Pakistan High Commission also failed to respond to a request for comment. PTI