ISI vetted Indians on Ghulam Nabi Fai list of invitees

Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, now identified as an “agent” of Pakistan and the ISI, steered through a “Washington Declaration” on July 25, 2010, which sought the right “of self determination” for Kashmiris.

The declaration was signed by three Indians who had been regulars at conferences that Fai used to organise using money from the ISI.

These three Indians are Prof Angana Chatterji, Gautam Navalakha and veteran journalist Ved Bhasin. Other prominent Indians who attended his conferences included the current interlocutor on Kashmir Dileep Padgaonkar and Justice Rajinder Sachar, former chief justice of the Delhi High Court.

For almost a decade Chatterji, a professor of social and cultural anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, had worked tirelessly to build up a body of work that took a critical record of India’s human rights violations in Kashmir. Today, most of her work has been stigmatized by her association with Fai.

“Had I known that the ISI was in directing his actions, I would never have had anything to do with him,” she said. She had “assumed that if congresspersons and senators were willing to associate with him, he must be a legitimate lobbyist in Washington.”

While accepting funds upwards of $4 million from the mid-1990s from the ISI, Fai also sought instructions from Pakistani intelligence on whom to invite to his conferences. For instance, he sent an email to his ISI handler in Pakistan, Brig Javed Aziz Khan on June 18, 2008 asking him to clear names for a conference that year.

The FBI says Khan sent him “a list of Indian nationals for Fai to invite”. The Indians who attended the conference after their names were approved by the ISI, included Justice Sachar and Bhasin.
Chatterji and Gautam Navalakha became some of the regulars at these conferences along with writers like Victoria Schofield.

Chatterji, whose work on forced disappearances in Kashmir and the discovery of mass graves was an important part of the Kashmir discourse, feels betrayed. “It was embarrassingly bad judgment on hindsight,” Chatterji said, adding that she found “the news of Dr. Fai’s alleged actions on behalf of the ISI to be highly disturbing and disillusioning.”

Navalakha had a similar reaction. “All this is post-factor. At that time none of us knew about his linkages and even now I would like to see some hard evidence.”

Intelligence shared by the US with India indicates that Fai also sought money from the ISI using the names of these prominent Indians.

“At one point Fai sought $50,000 from them using the names of Indian intellectuals like Chatterji and Padgaonkar,” a senior Indian official familiar with the case said.