US lawmakers Scott Perry, W Gregory Steube, and Mary E Miller have demanded an investigation against Masood Khan former president of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and current Pakistan ambassador to the United States for his links with terrorist and Islamist outfits.
After some delay, the US government had approved the nomination of Khan as its Ambassador to Washington, however, a prominent US Congressman had urged President Joe Biden to reject his diplomatic credentials and termed him a “bona fide terrorist sympathiser.”
In their letter dated March 9 to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, lawmakers Scott Perry, W Gregory Steube and Mary E Miller said that Khan has a close relationship with domestic actors linked with the Pakistani regime and they view this as a critical concern.
“It is vital to US national security that our government investigate any potential Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) violation with regard to Ambassador Khan.
“He clearly supports terrorists, and if this Administration is happy to provide him with a diplomatic visa, the American People deserve – at the very least – the due diligence from our government for a thorough investigation and answers,” the three lawmakers said.
The lawmakers have reminded the long history of Pakistan using US actors as agents of their government and reminded the AG that in 2011, Virginia activist Ghulam Nabi Fai was charged by American prosecutors with serving as a secret agent of the Pakistani government.
“Fai pleaded guilty and admitted to extensive contact with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). It emerged that the ISI had transferred USD 3.5 million to Fai and his organisation, the Kashmiri American Council,” they said.
In the letter, the three lawmakers also pointed out that, “Masood Khan also has also been tied closely to Pakistani efforts to marginalise India in the United States.
“Even as Friends of Kashmir hosted an event with two operatives with ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2017 (the US-designated terrorist group which carried out the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people, including Americans, were killed), Masood Khan continued to meet with the head of Friends of Kashmir on a regular basis, with social media posts highlighting several meetings at Mr.
Khan’s residence in Pakistan,” the three lawmakers said on the letter.
“In addition, while Masood Khan was ‘President of Azad Kashmir’, a registered 501(c)(3) organisation called Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD) repeatedly enjoyed praise from Khan and his office, which declared its commitment to “cooperation” with the HHRD11 – even after the US Congress raised concerns about HHRD’s open cooperation with designated terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba,” the letter said.
“Given the Ambassador’s unusual closeness to the aforementioned Islamist groups, we request an investigation into the nature of Mr Khan’s relationships with them,” the lawmakers demanded.
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