Thread by @samwestrop

1/ My colleague and I have spent the last 5 months tracking a Pakistani Houston network with links to Kashmiri jihadists, ISI operatives, Khalistani activists, serving U.S. congressmen, and a powerful network of American Pakistani Islamists.

firstpost.com/india/kashmir-…

2/ The key focus of our investigation revolves around a group named Friends of Kashmir (FoK), and its head, Ghazala Habib. FoK works out of the Pakistani embassy, with Habib closely and openly associated with senior Pakistani regime officials and Lashkar-e-Taiba linked terrorists

3/ In fact, Habib is also the appointed U.S. representative of prominent jihadists involved with the separatist All Huriyat Alliance, such as Syed Ali Gilani, former ‘head of jihad’ for Jamaat-e-Islami; and Asiya Andrabi, the head of banned jihadist outfit Dukhtaran-e-Millat.

4/ We can link this Houston network not just to a whole array of Sikh separatists, PTI officials and Jamaat-e-Islami Islamists, but also to big Pakistani regime proxies in the U.S. such as the APPNA and PAKPAC.

5/ Both groups are close to Imran Khan and his party, and which work, alongside a network of private Pakistani American businessmen, to influence financially and politically a number of American politicians, including the heads of the U.S. Congress’s Pakistan Caucus.

6/ One firm that works closely with FoK is the International Humanitarian Foundation (IHF), a group controlled by senior PTI officials, one of whom is a personal representative of Imran Khan. IHF was a key player organizing the big anti-Modi protests in Houston in September 2019

7/ IHF has a lot of money. Justice Dept. documents show that it hired Fenton Communications, a big DC lobbying firm, paying its tens of thousands. In addition, IHF took out NY Times advertisements, likely costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

8/ Meanwhile, back in Houston, IHF and a whole bunch of groups tied to FoK and a big local Pakistani mosque with Islamist ties, are all based out of or linked to a single Houston address.

9/ This incestuous, close-knit network features a small group of officials, who between them manage dozens of nonprofits and businesses. Many of them are key donors to the two heads of the Pakistani congressional caucus.

10/ These two congressmembers, Reps. Jackson Lee and Banks, took part in a 2020 FoK webinar, hosted by the Pakistani consulate, which featured radical Kashmiri activists and representatives of Khalistani organization Sikhs for Justice, banned in India because of terrorism ties.

11/ Other speakers included alleged ISI agents, radical Kashmiri activists such as Riffat Wani, and the notorious anti-Jewish, Islamist British peer, Lord Ahmed, who was recently forced out of the House of Lords amid accusations of criminality.

12/ There’s much more to this story. Read the full investigation here: meforum.org/islamist-watch…

13/ Also see coverage by @AartiTikoo for IANS, picked up by dozens of newspapers around the world. in.news.yahoo.com/anti-india-fri…

14/ And finally if you want to support our work uncovering these radical networks, please donate here: mightycause.com/story/Confront…