Srinagar: Jamu and Kashmir’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) court declared Washington-based Kashmir activist Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai is a criminal declared under the Illegal Activities (Prevention) Act [UAPA]In 1967, he did not appear in a terrorist case even after the arrest warrant was issued. The court directed him to surrender before the J&K police within 30 days from the date of the announcement.
Police said it successfully secured the declaration of Mr FAI, a criminal declared by a special judge of the NIA court in Budgam, the central district of the Valley.
Mr. Fai, founder of the U.S. Congress in Kashmir, Washington, originally came from Wadwan, a village in Budgam here. He moved from India to India in the early 1980s to conduct higher research and advocated the reasons for Kashmiri’s “freedom”. He became a U.S. citizen in 1990.
Police said the defendant “is currently concealing himself in the United States, continuing to evade arrests and obstructing legal proceedings under the law.” The police added that in light of his continued uncooperation and intentional cover-up efforts to evade arrests, Bugam police filed a request in court that was declared a criminal in court.
Police said a case wanted (No. 46, 46) was conducted at the Budgam Police Department under UAPA Sections 10, 13 and 39 (No. 46).
Article 10 of UAPA addresses fines as members of an unlawful association, or engage in activities that contribute or facilitate such associations. Section 13 deals with punishment for such activities and article 39, involving crimes related to supporting terrorist organizations.
Mr. Fa, 77, currently serves as secretary-general of the World Kashmir Consciousness Forum and Chairman of the World Peace and Justice Justice Forum, linked to several other organizations, he is funded by Pakistani U.S. Zaheer Ahmad, whose spy agency, is funded by the Pakistani government, including its spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). He is also accused of working as an unregistered foreign agent, covering up a $3.5 million transfer from the ISI to fund his lobbying efforts and affecting the U.S. government in violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act on Kashmir.
In December 2011, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion, and in March 2012, he was sentenced to two years in prison by a U.S. court for “conspiring to deceive the United States.” India welcomes the verdict, saying it will be sooner or later. The Ministry of the Union’s Home Affairs said this was very skeptical that the money received by Mr. FAI was provided by an agency in Pakistan.
However, Mr. FAI was released from the Maryland Federal Correctional Institute in November 2013 after an assistant U.S. attorney asked the court to reduce the sentence to 16 months and approved by the original sentencing judge.
Meanwhile, J&K (Budgam) police reiterated their “commitment to criminal cases against individuals evading justice and arrest, whether in India or abroad, ensuring that judicial rulings are determined through proper legal proceedings and through proper trials”.
