Srinagar, Dec 31: A senior Kashmiri separatist leader Nayeem Khan Saturday said lobbyist Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai was the victim of the tussle between spy agencies of United States and Pakistan.
Addressing a seminar in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir, Khan said Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, who is presently under house arrest in United States, was the victim of a tussle between CIA and ISI, spy agencies of United States and Pakistan.
“Before 2010, the US had no issues with Dr. Fai. Dr. Fai was made a scapegoat over the tussle between ISI and CIA. After the war between CIA and ISI, the US created problems for Dr. Fai. Otherwise, the technical issues were there in the past also but Dr. Fai was never arrested,” Khan said.
Fai was arrested by US law enforcement agencies on July 19, 2011 last year for allegedly lobbying for ISI and trying to change Kashmir policy of American government.
Fai served as the director of the Kashmiri American Council (KAC), a non-governmental organization in Washington, D.C., that held itself out to be run by Kashmiris, financed by Americans, and dedicated to raising the level of knowledge in the United States about the struggle of the Kashmiri people for self-determination.
Meanwhile, another senior separatist leader and chairman of pro-freedom separatist group Yasin Malik said the US would lose its “constituency” in Kashmir and across the world if it continues to persecute Dr. Fai.
“I am not pointing fingers on the US judicial system. There may be certain things that were not in norms with US law. That is why Dr. Fai was arrested. However, I want to clear it to both India and US that Fai is a peacemaker, who wants a political and peaceful resolution of Kashmir dispute. By keeping him in jail, isn’t America losing its constituency in Kashmir. Isn’t it creating anti-America sentiment in Kashmir unnecessarily?” Malik said.
