ISI-backed Kashmir lobby group Justice Foundation under probe in UK

LONDON/NEW DELHI: The Scotland Yard on Thursday initiated a probe into the activities and financing of London-based Kashmir lobby group, Justice Foundation, suspected to be a front of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, according to a source in the agency.

The revelation comes a day after the Kashmiri American Council director in Washington DC, Ghulam Nabi Fai, was arrested by the FBI. India will soon write to UK and Belgium to initiate similar action against "Kashmir Centres" in London and Brussels.

A Scotland Yard spokesman told TOI, "We can confirm we are liaising with US authorities."

The British home ministry said it was probably not an offence under UK laws for lobbyists to be under-written by a foreign government or any of its agencies. "To the best of our knowledge, it is not," said a spokesman. This means police and the Crown Prosecution Service will have to take recourse to some other legislation if they proceed against Justice Foundation.

Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai (62) and Zaheer Khan (63), both US citizens, were charged with conspiring to act as agents of a foreign power in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of US.

In the US, it's a crime to lobby by using money from an overseas regime.