Washington, Mar 30: A US attorney has claimed that Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is "supported and controlled" by ISI
 The Attorney Neil H MacBride made the claim before the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, ahead of the scheduled sentencing of  Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai who had set up an organization Kashmiri American Council in the US to promote the separatist cause.
 Dr Fai, who was arrested last year on charges of being a paid agent of ISI, has submitted the names of 53 individuals from Pakistan, India and the US in his support and all of them have urged the District Judge Liam O'Grady to give the Kashmiri separatist a lighter sentence.
 The Mirwaiz, who is among those who has written letters of support, returned to New Delhi from Jeddah this morning but could not be reached for his comments. However, his spokesperson Shahid-ul-Islam said from Srinagar that the Mirwaiz would be issuing a statement on the allegation on Saturday.
 MacBride made a 10-page submission to the court in which he stated that many of those who had written the letters in support of Dr Fai had failed to disclose facts which might undermine their credibility before the court.
 In a footnote, he linked the Mirwaiz to the ISI and said that another letter-writer was copied on at least 26 e-mails from Pakistan's intelligence agency to Dr Fai.
 Those who have written support letters include Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, a editor of a JK based daily Ved Bhasin and well-known civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha.
 The Attorney alleged that Navlakha was "introduced to an ISI General for recruitment by Fai at ISI's direction".
 When contacted in Jharkhand, Navlakha rubbished the allegation and said, "It is pretty ridiculous. You have to find out on what basis he made that comment. I don't know why he said that. It is such an atrocious statement."
 Navlakha said he criticized Dr Fai in the support letter for not disclosing the source of funding as per US laws but supported his clemency because of political reasons.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 30 Mar 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 IST