Kashmiri Dr. Fai Stages A Comeback Despite Pressure From Indian Lobby In Washington
Indian-occupied Kashmir's face in Washington DC vows from behind American bars to continue the struggle to expel India's occupation army from his native Kashmir 'in days, weeks, months and years to come.'
SPECIAL REPORT | Thursday | 4 August 2011
WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM
WASHINGTON, DC—Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, an American advocate of ending India's occupation of Kashmir, staged a surprise comeback today, vowing in a message that his struggle for ending Indian occupation of Kashmir will "continue…for years to come" despite efforts by India and pro-India elements in US capital to have him arrested and detained last month.
The surprise message came as US authorities continue to detain him on trumped up charges of receiving money from Pakistan. The list of charges against Dr. Fai includes working for Pakistan's premier spy arm, the ISI.
Pakistani and international analysts have said singling out ISI by US prosecutors appears to be an act of revenge by CIA. The American spy service is exacting revenge from its Pakistani counterpart as frustration grows in Washington at CIA's failure to stabilize Afghanistan in a decade.
"CIA has run Afghanistan for a decade," a congressional aide sympathetic to Kashmiri cause told PakNationalists.com. "Now when things are falling apart there for our country, Langley is looking for scapegoats."
The congressional staffer requested his name not be mentioned.
Although behind bars, Dr. Fai's statement was formally released online by the Kashmiri American Council, or KAC, which is run by Kashmiri-Americans who trace their roots to parts of Kashmir that lie today under Indian military occupation. Working on a budget considered peanuts by the standards of lobbying groups in the US capital, the KAC has managed on many occasions to drown the voices of Indians and their American lobbyists, offering an alternate version to the Indian storyline on the activities of its military and paramilitary forces in the occupied region, where more than half a million Indian soldiers are present at any given time.
In the statement, Dr. Fai quotes President Abraham Lincoln, avoids directly criticizing those who ran a smear campaign in the US media against the Kashmiri freedom struggle, and subtly reminds Washington's political establishment of US commitment to helping occupied peoples fight tyranny.
Here is the full text of his brief statement:
"It has been my lifelong commitment to the people of the State of Jammu & Kashmir, irrespective of their religious background and cultural affiliations, to help achieve the right of self-determination to decide their future. God willing! I will continue to do that in days, weeks, months and years to come.
Given the traditional support of the United States to the basic principles of fundamental freedoms and democratic processes; given the personal vision of President Barack Obama about the region of South Asia which includes Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Kashmir; given the traditional bipartisan expression of support by the United States Administration to the issue of Kashmir that 'India and Pakistan must resolve the issue of Kashmir after taking into account the wishes and aspirations of the people'; and given the indigenous, nonviolent and peaceful nature of the movement initiated by the people of Kashmir, in particular since June 2008 and thankfully sustaining that until today, I say with fullest possible consciousness that the people of Jammu & Kashmir have no reason to fear that the world powers in general, and the United States in particular, will let them down.
President Abraham Lincoln has said it the best, "The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just."
FBI arrested Dr. Fai on July 21, charging him of receiving funding from a foreign spy agency to influence US government and legislators on Kashmir. The arrest coincided with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to India and appeared to be an attempt to placate the Indians in order to secure a multibillion dollar Indian contract for fighter jets.
The arrest could also be an attempt to compensate the Indians for curtailing their security and intelligence presence in US-controlled Afghanistan in recent months. Many officials in the US government feel giving India a free hand in the occupied nation, as CIA has done since 2002, has unnecessarily alienated the longtime Pakistani ally.
Legal experts say the case against Dr. Fai is weak. One of the main evidences that CIA is using against Dr. Fai is an email that dates back to 1995 and shows Dr. Fai writing to an unknown Pakistani acquaintance telling him 'we have worked together' on Kashmir cause. The CIA interprets this to be a conspiracy in collaboration with ISI.
Most of the remaining evidence is similarly vague and appears to be politically motivated.
It is unclear if Dr. Fai's statement indicates that the strong Kashmiri Diaspora, which is active worldwide, has finally decided to financially and morally counter the case against the KAC.
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