NEW DELHI: Scott Perry, W. Gregory Steube and Mary E. Miller, three Republican members of the US Congress, on March 9, have addressed a letter to Merrick Garland, Attorney General of the United States, Department of Justice to investigate terror links with Masood Khan, Pakistan’s newly appointed Ambassador to the US, a letter The New Indian accessed reads. Earlier this month, Khan had received a clearance from the US, days later President Joe Biden disdained Khan’s diplomatic credentials, calling him a “bona fide terrorist sympathiser”. Khan’s nomination was withheld from November 2021.
In the letter, the Congress members underscored that Pakistan has a history of taking advantage of American actors to achieve their narrow goals. Ghulam Nabi Fai, a virginia activist was charged in 2011 as a secret agent of Pakistan. He maintained extensive contact with Pakistan’s secret service Inter-Services Intelligence and received $3.5 million from ISI. Soon after his premature release in 2013, Fai started his activities under an outfit called World Kashmir Awareness Forum as the Secretary General.
In the capacity of President of Azad Kashmir, Masood Khan had close ties with Helping Hand for Relief and Development, maintaining close ties with Lashkar-e-Taiba, reads the letter penned by the Congress members.
Addressing a letter to President Biden on January 27, Scott Perry wrote: “A litany of examples accompanies Mr. Khan’s perverse attachment to Islamic terrorism, which makes it exceedingly obvious that Pakistan has embraced its identity as a super terrorist state. We know, for instance, that the Ambassador-designate is a supporter of the terrorist groups Jamaat-e-Islami, a group that assisted in committing genocide in the early 1970s, as well as Helping Hand for Relief and Development, a group that had no qualms establishing a partnership
with the foreign terrorist organization responsible for the brutal murder of 166 people during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks (Lashkar-e-Taiba).”
Appealing for a prompt action and demanding an immediate probe on newly appointed diplomat, Masood Khan, the Congress members penned this letter on March 9. “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. It is vital to the U.S. 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 letter reads.
Khan is believed to have a bonhomie with the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led by Prime Minister Imran Khan in Pakistan. Born in Rawlakot in Pakistan administered Kashmir, 70-year-old Masood Khan, a Pashtun, who joined Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1980 was elevated as the Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, New York.