Why is the world silent on the ISI’s plan to kill former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s adviser Shahzad Akbar in London on November 26,2023? As the western media is filled with make-believe stories about Indian attempts to curb anti-national voices operating from foreign soil, ISI with its assassin squads has been operating from different capitals of the world with impunity. The barbaric acid attack on the human rights activist, Akbar, outside his house in Hertfordshire, should have rung alarm bells across the world but it did not.
Akbar had fled Pakistan when Imran Khan was pulled down from his premiership by the army. He was scared of the fate met by well-known journalist, Arshad Sharif in Kenya. Sharif too had fled the country on threats from ISI, was chased to Dubai where he first went to hide and then to Kenya where he was hunted down brutally. Shahzad Akbar realised the gravity of the threat early in May this year when his brother, Murad, was kidnapped by ISI goons. According to a first-information report registered with Shalimar police station, Islamabad, Murad was “abducted” by people purportedly from different law-enforcing agencies from his Islamabad residence on May 28.
The intelligence agency wanted Akbar to return to Pakistan and depose against his former
boss, Imran Khan. A week later, several former UK Cabinet ministers, senior law officers, renowned journalists and legal rights organisations made a strong appeal for Mubarak’s release. It is reported that the Hatfield police initiated a criminal complaint in the Murad case and it is reported that British police asked Islamabad for a reply. Murad returned home in August this year.
Akbar then received a letter from the high commission early November just to check his address. He was then attacked. It is widely known in London that Akbar’s attack was carried out by the ISI
section operating from the Pakistan High Commission in London. The section is headed by a Colonel. Official involvement by members of the Pakistan government in this despicable act is sadly rendered obvious from recent history: Shahzad was a minister in the government of Imran Khan, told to root out
corruption.
Within 12 hours of this outrage, the authorities in Pakistan underlined their intent by raiding Shahzad’s house in Islamabad, trying to seize his brother Murad once again. The London office of the ISI had come into the spotlight with the assassination attempt of a Pakistani blogger who had fled the country after receiving threats from the ISI in 2021. The beleaguered blogger Ahmad Waqas Goraya was set up to be killed in Rotterdam by one Muhammad Gohir Khan. Khan was given considerable money by an ISI cutout to take out Goraya who had taken shelter in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
In fact, well-known British newspaper, The Guardian, in 2021, had reported a kill list maintained by the ISI in London. The UK’s Counter Terrorism Police had issued a warning to Pakistani exiles living in London to be cautious. Another newspaper, The Observer, reported similar warnings given to Pakistani dissidents across Europe, including rights activists from the Pakistani province of Balochistan, journalists, and members of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, a group representing ethnic Pashtuns.
Back in 2011, the London office ISI had been known to host one Ghulam Nabi Fai, arrested by the FBI, for leading a fundraising campaign to carry out violent activities in India. Fai headed the Kashmiri American Council in Washington and had an office in London where he worked in close liaison with the special operations cell of ISI in the London High Commission. The US indictment accused Fai of “a decades-long scheme with one purpose – to hide Pakistan’s involvement behind his efforts to influence the U.S. government’s position on Kashmir…His handlers in Pakistan allegedly funnelled millions through the Kashmir Center to contribute to U.S. elected officials, fund high-profile conferences, and pay for other efforts that promoted the Kashmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington.”
