Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai

One of the academicians, the study by the Indian agencies has claimed, is Dr Audrey Truschke.

New Delhi: An assessment carried out by intelligence agencies has found that the deep state within Pakistan has been influencing Western academicians, who knowingly or unknowingly, are working on an anti-India agenda that these deep state actors have asked them to execute.

According to the assessment seen by The Sunday Guardian, one of the most prominent faces assisting this deep state, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, who is currently active in the United States, has been influencing professors and similar academicians to carry out a “soft-war” on India, especially on Twitter and through op-eds in Indian and Western newspapers and publications. Fai had been similarly active on Kashmir in the 1990s, when President Bill Clinton sought to pressure Prime Minister Narasimha Rao to give up the valley to Pakistan, besides dismantling the nuclear deterrent against China and its proxy, Pakistan.

The main objective, according to the agencies who are studying these developments, is to discredit India’s soft power image and make it appear like a “pariah”, a state promoting “majority religion” with little or scant regard for human rights and issues of personal liberty.

One of the academicians, the study by the Indian agencies has revealed, who is active in operations helpful to the goals of the Pakistan army deep state is Dr Audrey Truschke, a teacher of history with a US-based university.

The Sunday Guardian reached out to Truschke seeking her response to the assessment done by the agencies. She told The Sunday Guardian: “These allegations are categorically false. They are invented to attack academic freedom, especially scholarship that does not support Hindu nationalist positions. Such baseless smears risk placing me in danger.” She has categorically denied any charges that her activities are in any way linked to the operations of the Pakistan “deep state” against India.

Truschke, along with two other individuals, was selected for a short term Fellowship to Pakistan by the American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS) in 2012-13. The AIPS, established in 1973, is a non-profit, tax-exempt, non-partisan educational organization and a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centres. Its mission is to encourage and support research on issues relevant to Pakistan and the promotion of scholarly exchange between the United States and Pakistan. Truschke’s husband, who interned at Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in 2007, is presently an assistant at US’s attorney office in the Southern District of New York. In the past, some within this department had openly backed the ISI in its Operation Khalistan against the integrity of India, and remain apologists for a country that was born amidst the genocide of members of the innocent Sikh community that had been prominent in what became Pakistan on 14 August 1947. As per the assessment, Truschke is a regular attendant of the Lahore Literary Festival, where she “speaks against Indian democracy and against Hindutva”, which is equated by several ISI-leaning outfits to mean Hindus as a whole. It may be remembered that Hindus in Pakistan have diminished to insignificance, and the few that still remain live in fear. Professor Trutschke seems not to be aware of their condition in Pakistan, judging by her silence on the subject.

Interestingly, Nathan Rehn, her father-in-law, who is a pastor by profession, spent a lot of time in India during 2000-2007 as a lead pastor for the Baptist church of Monterey, California, US. He also founded an NGO, “Bless India Ministries Incorporated” (BIMI), which worked in close coordination with “Ministries Welfare Association (CKKMWA)”, a Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh based NGO during the period 2007 to 2010. CKKMWA, whose FCRA Registration number is AP/010350118, is engaged in promoting particular theologies in India. It got more than Rs 1.5 crore in the period between 2007-2011 from BIMI.

Professor Truschke, the assessment found, is also on the advisory board of Students Against Hindutva Ideology (SAHI), an organization formed during the anti-CAA protests. SAHI works in close coordination with Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC). IAMC, in the past, has lobbied against India in the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to designate India as Country of Particular Concern by hiring “professional lobbying agents”. IAMC, of which Truschke is a regular attendee, gained “notoriety” for giving a platform to Dr Mohammad Siddiqui, the founder of SIMI. Additionally, IAMC has links with the Islamic Council of North America (ICNA), which is the US associate of Pakistan’s Hindu-phobic Jamaat-e-Islami. This is well documented by both Indian and Western security agencies.

Boosted by India-phobic Wahabi elements within the Democratic Party, ICNA through one of its organizations, “Justice For All”, was successfully able to lobby against India in-front of USCIRF, which declared India as a “Country of Particular Concern”. SAHI works in close coordination with “Stand with Kashmir” (SWK), a group founded in February 2019. SWK was recently exposed as a group operating from the US, and being backed by long-time ISI associate, Ghulam Nabi Fai.