The Capitol Hill Trail

For two decades, Ghulam Nabi Fai funded Kashmir militancy right under Washington DC’s nose. The game is up

For the past 20 years, a lone man of Kashmiri origin in the United States had been spearheading a campaign on Kashmir that went against India’s interests. In these years, he organised seminar after seminar, inviting top Indian journalists, activists and academics to speak on what he was keen to portray as the ‘Indian occupation’ of Kashmir. As a lobbyist in Washington DC, he spent millions of dollars trying to influence US politicians in favour of the cause.

Last fortnight, the US government finally acted against Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, executive director of the Kashmiri American Council. He was arrested and charged with lobbying without registration for a foreign government (Pakistan). According to America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Fai was acting on behalf of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI); he made more than 4,000 calls to his handlers in Pakistan and received $4 million—to influence America’s Kashmir policy in favour of Pakistan (and thus against India).

Fai has now been released on bail, but remains under house arrest in the US. It is yet not clear whether the US will share details of Fai’s money trail with India. But in Kashmir, top police officers are well aware of Fai’s contribution to the spread of militancy in the state. In the past two decades, they believe, Fai has sent hundreds of crore to militant and separatist groups in Kashmir through hawala channels. A substantial part of this money, according to a senior police officer in Kashmir, went to the terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen. “We know of men who have handled this money, and these are men who have heavy shares in many businesses, including the currently booming real estate sector in the Valley,” says the police source, adding that Fai’s funds have reached not just militants and separatist leaders, but also hawala agents and various other players in the game that Kashmir has become in the past two decades.

An affidavit filed by the FBI’s special agent Sarah Webb Linden quotes a witness-turned-informer (referred to as CW-2) as saying that of the statements Fai makes, 80 per cent are drafted by the ISI. His primary supervisor in the ISI has been identified as one Brigadier Javeed Aziz Khan (code name Rathore and Abdullah), who had been in touch with Fai via telephone (92-51-9211611, 92-51-9204631 and other numbers) and email (rathoremail@hotmail.com and nizami.mir@gmail.com). Between 2006 and early 2011, Khan contacted Fai through these email IDs nearly 2,000 times.

On 20 July 2007, Fai is believed to have emailed Khan to reimburse the $45,000 that he spent on organising a conference in Uruguay. The next day, Khan responded, denying him the cash: ‘Unfortunately, based on the understanding [gained from] you when we dissuaded you from the said conference, it is impossible to cater [to] the requested demand. As intimated, these matters are finalised much in advance and no additional allotment is entertained thereafter.’

The FBI affidavit notes that the above email ‘demonstrates that Fai was only reimbursed by the Government of Pakistan for expenses on projects that were already approved by the Government of Pakistan’. But apart from occasional blockages, it is clear from the email trail that Fai received a regular stream of money from Pakistan. On 19 June 2008, for example, Fai informed Khan that he needed ‘half a dozen Brylcreem’—code for $60,000, according to the FBI.

Several influential Indians have been beneficiaries of Fai’s hospitality, as delegates invited to various seminars in the US that were funded by what is clearly emerging as ISI money. After Fai’s arrest, most of them are now trying to wash their hands of the connection. Prominent among them is former journalist and now a New Delhi-appointed interlocutor on Kashmir, Dileep Padgaonkar. In 2005, he had visited Washington DC on a trip sponsored by Fai’s Kashmir American Council. After his name appeared on the list of those who accepted Fai’s hospitality, Padgaonkar in his defence said that he had “no idea” of the man’s antecedents. Nobody, however, has asked him to explain how his claim to ignorance squares with the fact that a newspaper he is associated with (and was once editor of), has published reports on Fai’s Pakistan links over the past many years. Even MM Ansari, former chief information commissioner and also an interlocutor on Kashmir, has expressed dismay over Padgaonkar’s name on the list. “It is very strange and unfortunate,” Ansari told The Indian Express, “We need persons of impeccable integrity and character to resolve an issue as contentious as Kashmir. Was the Government of India aware of Dileep’s attending the conference organised by Fai before it appointed him?”

Interestingly, the FBI affidavit states that on 18 June 2008, Fai had emailed Khan a list of invitees for a conference organised by the Kashmir American Council, and asked for an add-on list. Held on Capitol Hill on 31 July and 1 August 2008, the conference was attended by six invitees named by Khan.

Fai’s ISI association comes as no surprise to security agencies in India. Over the past two decades, much has been written and reported about Fai’s connections with militant groups operating in Kashmir. His links with the Hizbul Mujahideen were even exposed by a paper put out in 2001 by the New Delhi-based Institute of Conflict Management.

Originally from Kashmir’s Badgam district, Fai was a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami in his college days. Afterwards, he got a postgraduate degree in philosophy from Aligarh Muslim University, and went on to do a doctorate in mass communication from Temple University in Pennsylvania. He has been in the US since the 1980s, and could not visit Kashmir after his passport was cancelled by the Indian authorities. 

The FBI affidavit says that two other ‘Kashmir Centres’—one in London run by Nazir Ahmad Shawl and the other in Brussels run by Abdul Majeed Tramboo —are also under the charge of ‘elements of the Pakistani government, including Pakistan’s military intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency’. Fai’s American Centre may have been closed, but these two and many others are still in operation.

Perhaps it is time for India to take these up with the governments of countries where these centres operate. After all, so long as money is channelled into Kashmir through such units, New Delhi’s hope of peace and stability in Kashmir will remain just that.

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