Fai days are back: How journalists, writers fueled the ideological war in Kashmir

This time around it has been found that the benefits being availed are not as blatant as they used to be.

The Centre based on inputs prepared a detailed list of 20 persons including journalists, a retired High Court judge, writers, intellectuals and government officials who have been receiving money through hawala channels to fuel the unrest in Kashmir.

Operation Clean up which was launched by the Indian government will battle the Kashmir issue on two fronts. The bullets and the ideology will both be dealt with an iron fist and they both compliment each other said a Home Ministry official.

The situation is no different when compared to the Ghulam Nabi Fai episode. There are scores of people who fuel the unrest through ideology and this has resulted in youth coming out in huge numbers and taking to violence. These persons are also the ones who have urged the youth to come out in large numbers.

The funding of these journalists and writers is very similar to what one witnessed when the US released the document on Fai. It was said that many journalists enjoyed the hospitality of Fai who ran the Kashmiri American Council, also known as the Kashmir Center.

Fai was charged with conspiring to act as unregistered agents of the Pakistan government. In other words, they acted as Inter-Services Intelligence minions in the United States. Fai would invite these journalists for conferences and they in turn would take the all expenses paid trips. During the conferences they would forward their views on Kashmir. Moreover they also availed airfare, hotel accommodation among other perks which would run into lakhs of rupees.

Not that blatant this time:

This time around it has been found that the benefits being availed are not as blatant as they used to be. There is a proper funding channel through hawala, the Intelligence Bureau has learnt.

These persons are paid to provoke and give a different narrative on Kashmir. It all started with the death of Burhan Wani. It was the ideological war that was launched that led to the problem worsening. Selective narratives on television debates apart from terming a terrorist as a poor headmaster's son were all signs of a narrative change.

Burhan Wani had become a hero overnight in Kashmir. He had become the poster boy of Jihad. We learnt during our investigation that Wani's name was used as an excuse to fuel the unrest. We found during our probe that several persons in Delhi as well as Kashmir carried out a sustained campaign to ensure that Wani became a hero and the unrest was fueled in his name, the Intelligence Bureau official also said.

OneIndia News