According to the DisInfo Lab report, the United States-based Pakistan-linked charity organisations started collecting funds in name of helping India in this pandemic time but sent only a small amount in the name of help to India, india.com reports on June 16. Calling it ‘Covid-19 Scam 2021’, the report said the donated millions of dollars are likely to be used for fomenting protests and sponsoring outright terror attacks. The report also called it one of the worst scams in human history in terms of the humanitarian cost as millions of dollars were stolen in the name of ‘Helping India Breath’. Notably, the DisInfo Lab exposed a number of charity organisations which managed to raise funds by exploiting India’s hard-earned goodwill. One such organisation which claimed to have worked for India is the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA). The present chairman of IMANA is Dr Ismail Mehr who has been leading the “Help India Breathe” project. He is a Pakistan-origin doctor and currently based in the US, according to the report.
The report suggested that these organisations have close ties with radical Islamists and terrorists’ organizations and being run in cahoots with the Pakistan army. “Funds worth tens of crores donated by well-meaning people world over to help India in crisis – has been stolen. There is no accountability and in the present globalised world, no mechanism to ensure any accountability,” said the report. Unlike several other organizations, IMANA was rather opaque in its recent charity drive during the Covid crisis and has provided “scanty details” about the manner it has spent crores of funds it has collected.