Protest rally in London to mark 29th Anniversary of Maqbool Butt Shaheed
London - 12th February 2013
To mark the 29th martyrdom anniversary of Maqbool Butt Shaheed, JKLF in Britain organized a protest rally in front of Indian High commission in London. Despite severe cold, hundreds of people including women and children from different cities of United Kingdom participated. Protesters shouted slogans of “Stop Killings in Kashmir”, “Handover remains of Maqbool Butt”, “Handover body of Afzal Guru” and in favour of complete independence of Jammu Kashmir. Three British Parliamentarians including Simon Donczuk MP, Lord Nazir Ahmed and Lord Qurban Hussain also joined the protesters.
A petition signed by 38 British Parliamentarians was also presented to the officials of the high commission on this occasion. The petition asked the Indian President Pranab Mukherjee to handover the mortal remain of Maqbool Butt Shaheed to his relatives for proper burial.
Speaking on this occasion, JKLF in Britain, Prof Azmat Khan, condemned the Indian government decision to hang an innocent man, Afzal Guru, over the parliamentary attack case and called it a 'mockery of justice', and said that Afzal Guru was framed by Indian security services people and denied due legal process because they needed a scapegoat.
He paid rich tributes to Maqbool Butt Shaheed and said that the only way forward for Kashmiri nation is to follow the teachings in practical terms and the ideology of this great Kashmiri leader.
Other JKLF leaders who also spoke on this occasion and paid tributes to Shaheed Maqbool Butt include Cllr Mahmood Hussain, Masoom Ansari, Riaz Butt, Aslam Mirza, Nazam Bhatti, Malik Latif Khan, Syed Tahseen Gilani, Sabir Gul, Malik Mushtaq, Khan Farooq Khan, Kaman Afsar etc.
Press Secretary,
JKLF UK Zone
Email: info@jklf.co.uk
Web: www.jklf.co.uk / www.JKLF.ORG
His Excellency,
High Commissioner ofIndia
India London
High Commissioner of
Your Excellency;
London Kashmiris and members of
JKLF as well as members of UK Parliament are gathered here today to protest in strongest
terms against the hanging of Afzal Guru on Saturday who was not involved in the
alleged parliament attack but given the death penalty to satisfy ‘collective
conscience’ of blood thirsty elements in India who seek to victimise Kashmiris
for demanding their right to self-determination. We see this case as another
attack on the collective concience of
Kashmiri people. The president of India India
Amnesty International has
expressed serious misgivings about the politically motivated trial against
Afzal just as it did with the trial and execution of Maqbool Butt Shaheed.29
years ago this month.
Time will prove that India Kashmir for years to come.
We sincerely hope that your
governemnt will not make the same mistake as it did in the case of Maqbool Butt
of not handing over his body to his family in Kapwara. We demand that Afzal
Guru’s body should be handed over to his family in Sopore without further
delay.
We attach a signed petition from
37 members of parliament addressed to the president of India
___________________________________
Joint Letter from the All Party
Parliamentary Group on Kashmir , UK
To
His Excellency, Parnab Mukherjee
President of Republic of India New Delhi
We
the undersigned members of parliament would like to appeal to your office to
order the mortal remains of Kashmiri leader, Maqbool Butt, who was executed in
Tihar jail, on 11th February, 1984 and buried within the jail premises, to be handed
back to his family in Kashmir or to his children living in Pakistan
We
make this appeal on humanitarian grounds as Maqbool Butt’s family members were
not allowed to see him at the time of his execution and have waited long enough
to receive his dead body for a decent burial in Kashmir .
Signed :
1.
Sir Gerald Kaufman, MP (Manchester
2.
Lord Nazir Ahmed
3.
David Ward, MP
(Bradford)
4.
Lord Qurban Hussain
5.
Debbie Abrahams, MP (Oldham )
6.
Lord Bill McKenzie
7.
Gavin Shuker, MP
(Luton )
8.
Baroness Beverley Hughes
9.
Shabana Mahmood, MP Birmingham)
10. Lady Sarah
Ludford, MEP
11. Fiona
Mctaggart , MP (Slough )
12. Phil
Bennion, MEP
13. Kelvin
Hopkins, MP (Luton )
14. Sajjad
Karim, MEP
15. Andrew
Stephenson, MP (Pendle)
16. Linda
McAvan, MEP
17. Yasmin
Qureshi, MP (Bolton )
18. John
Hemming, MP (Birmingham
19. Chris
Leslie, MP (Nottingham )
20. David
Nuttall, MP (Bury)
21. Vernon
22. Simon
Danczuk, MP (Rochdale )
23. George
Galloway, MP (Bradford)
24. Stephen
Timms, MP (EastHam)
25. David
Blunkett, MP (Sheffield )
26. Ian Austin,
MP (Dudley)
27. Steve
Baker, MP (Wycombe)
28. Andrew
Griffiths, MP (Burton
29. Richard
Harrington, MP (Watford )
30. Jonathan
Lord, MP (Woking )
31. Graham
Stringer, MP (Manchester
32. Sarah
Champion (Rotherham )
33. Lucy
Powell, MP (Manchester
34. Paul
Bloomfield, MP (Sheffield )
35. Dave
Anderson, MP (Blaydon)
36. Richard
Fuller, MP (Bedford)
37. Stewart
Jackson, MP (Peterborough
