United States citizen Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, director of the Kashmir American Council (KAC), pleaded guilty yesterday to hiding the fact that the Pakistani military and Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) paid him to lobby the U.S. government in regards to a Pakistan-India territorial dispute.
“For the last 20 years, Mr. Fai secretly took millions of dollars from Pakistani intelligence and lied about it to the U.S. government,” said U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said in a statement. “As a paid operative of ISI, he did the bidding of his handlers in Pakistan while he met with U.S. elected officials, funded high-profile conferences and promoted the Kashmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington.”
India occupied Kashmir territory in 1947 and currently stations — according to KAC — “well over 750,000 Indian military and paramilitary forces” in the region. The United Nations notes that “Pakistan considers Kashmir as its core political dispute with India,’ adding that “the United Nations also does not consider Indian claim as legally valid.”
KAC says that it “has always been, and remains, an organization created by Kashmiris, for Kashmiris, designed and dedicated to supporting Jammu and Kashmir’s right to self determination as enshrined in multiple United Nations resolutions.”
The United States government findings damage that claim. “Fai repeatedly submitted annual KAC strategy reports and budgetary requirements to Pakistani government officials for approval,” the FBI explains in a press release.
