Fai tries to get political mileage out of his arrest

From Lalit K Jha
Washington, Jul 27 (PTI) Arrested on charges of
illegally lobbying on behalf of Pakistan's ISI on Kashmir,
separatist Kashmiri leader Ghulam Nabi Fai and his supporters
on Wednesday tried to gain political mileage after he was
released from detention by a US court and put under house
arrest.
Fai, 62, who lives in Fairfax, Virginia, an affluent
suburb of Washington, along with his Chinese wife and his two
children, waved his hand to few dozen supporters who attended
the court proceedings on Wednesday, as he was being taken out
of the court room to the prison by court marshals.
Wearing a green jump suit, with prisoner written in
the back, his supporters too waved their hands to Fai as this
was a victory for them.
The court ordered that he be released from the prison
and instead put under house arrest with electronic
surveillance.
This gesture by both Fai and his supporters was
objected by the court officials.
As everyone came out of the court room, people started
congratulating Fai's wife Chang Ning Ying Q. She instantly
gave a speech lasting less than a minute, thanking everybody
for the support and asking them to join her for dinner.
She said she has full faith in the justice system and
then asked people to pray to the god for "justice" to the
people of Kashmir.
Outside the court building, his supporters, many of
whom had come from New York and his attorney tried to make a
messiah out of Fai.
"This is really a political case," Fai's attorney
Khurram Wahid said.
"Just like for many years, Nelson Mandela was seen as
an enemy of the State, there were times when political leaders
would have courage are seen as enemy of the State," he said,
forcing a journalist to quip: "Surely you are not comparing
apartheid government with the United States Government."
Wahid responded in negative. "But I am comparing Fai
to the efforts of Nelson Mandela," he said.
"That's a tall one," a reporter remarked on this.
Happy that the court has accepted Fai's bail bond, M
Tahir, chairman of the Fai Relief Committee, said: "Kashmiri
people swill continue to work diplomatically and politically
in the whole world, especially in the US to get right of self
determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for which Dr
Fai was working for two decades."
Tahir said this was "deeply shocking" news for the
community that Fai was taking money from Pakistan's spy agency
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for the cause of Kashmir.
PTI LKJ
ASR