Separatists flay Ghulam Nabi Fai's arrest

NEW DELHI: Ghulam Nabi Fai's admirers among the separatists and regulars at his grievance-mongering seminars on Thursday jumped to his defense and said the accusation of him being a Pakistani agent was aimed at "discrediting the Kashmir campaign".

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has charged Fai, who heads the Kashmir American Council, for pushing the Kashmiri issue in Washington with Pakistan funding for over a decade. A confidential witness quoted by the FDI affidavit said that at least $4 million was allegedly spent on conferences and campaign donations aimed at swaying US lawmakers on Kashmir.

It was provided by the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), the US government said. It's not clear how much went to politicians; Fai wanted to spend about $100,000 on donations to Congress in 2008 alone, the affidavit said. It's also not clear that any of the politicians had any idea where the money came from.

The ISI is implicated separately in an ongoing US investigation of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

The affidavit has said that money from Pakistan was moved through a network of "straw donors" in the US, comprising US-based Pakistani doctors and businessmen.

Syed Ali Geelani, chairman of the breakaway Hurriyat group, called the arrest "a conspiracy by India to weaken the freedom struggle in Kashmir". Fai is said to be closer to Geelani's parent organisation, Jamaat-e-Islami. "It is unfortunate that a leader like Fai is being dubbed an agent," said Shabir Shah, another separatist said.