That headline, “‘Pakistani spies’ in the Houses of Parliament” is not mine. It’s from the Telegraph Security Correspondent, Duncan Gardham. Although it was written in 2011, has anything changed now in 2019 as we look to elect new members to the Houses of Parliament?
The article talks of a group, The Justice Foundation, promoting "Pakistani interests in the long-running conflict between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan over the disputed border region of Kashmir, using millions of dollars of covert funding.” In the same year, "the FBI arrested Syed Nabi Fai, a US citizen from Fairfax, Virginia, accusing him of running an organisation called the Kashmiri American Council while acting as an agent of a foreign power." Fai was a director of London based Justice Foundation.
As the Telegraph reported, "US prosecutors claim that three “Kashmir Centers” in Washington, London and Brussels, are run on behalf of “elements of the Pakistani government, including Pakistan’s military intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI).”"
The Justice Foundation hosted events about Kashmiri ‘Human Rights’ in Parliament attended by Labour Party speakers. Does that sound familiar?
So, have things changed from the date of that article?
They’ve definitely got worse. More events in Parliament uncover of ‘Kashmiri Human Rights’ using complicit or well-meaning fools like Liam Byrne, Lord Ahmed to proclaim a fake case.
Pakistan’s strategy is clearly to conflate Kashmir and Khalistan, to fund both issues, and as with its own existence, create a fictional name for a fictional country and to carve it out of India as in 1947. To do this, the Pakistani High Commission in the UK openly supports twin issues as their Twitter feed alone shows. Pakistan is reaching out to show a new found respect for Sikhs not shown to minority faiths before (which is good) in a change of strategy.
But this General Election has shown a disturbing new development. Not only has there been an increase in Labour candidates professing to support the Pakistani line on Kashmir and ‘Khalistan’ but as with the Labour Party conference, you can expect more events and more ‘fundraisers’ campaigning for ‘human rights’. We must ensure the stated views of candidates, and it is Labour candidates, on these issues are clear and stated openly. As the Telegraph revealed this is not a long standing human rights issue, it is a terrorist funding issue.
Thankfully laws on funding of terrorism have improved over the past decade. To those thinking of attending such events masquerading as ‘human rights’ know that funding of terrorism is a strict liability imprisonable offence ie it is no defence to say you did not know the funds were being used for terrorism.
Association with a terrorist group, marching with known members is a criminal offence. Ignorance is not a defence. And do not think the names of such organisations are as obvious as ISIS. These are some names of proscribed terrorist organisations in the UK:
Islam4UK, Babbar Khalsa, Global Islamic Media Front, Sipah-e Sahaba Pakistan.
At the time of writing this article the Pakistan High Commission in London has not responded for a comment.
