JKLF President, Azmat A Khan, addressing a public meeting organized by the Birmingham branch has said that JKLF was set to change the history of Kashmir and the map of Indian sub-continent just as JKLF struggle has changed the history of independence movement in Jammu Kashmir. He urged the UK Kashmiris to unite on one platform and strengthen the JKLF movement. He said that a number of major projects are underway by  JKLF at diplomatic level and for that his organisation was in dire need of funds and asked his members to donate generously as they had been doing for nearly 3 decades. He said that JKLF leaders will not allow the Kashmiri martyrs blood waste in vain. He further said that both India and Pakistan are intendeing to declare LOC as a international border which will not be acceptable to Kashmiris on both sides and if their voice was not heard their movement would take a dangerous turn and all responsibility will lie with those who are not listening to our peaceful protests. 

European MP, Phil Bennion, who was a Chief Guest at the JKLF’s annual gathering said that Kashmir issue needed to be resolved for the better relations and peace between India and Pakistan and that a sustainable solution was to give Kashmiri people in all occupied areas a chance to decide their future through a internationally supervised referendum.

Other speakers who spoke for UK Kashmiris  included JKLF general secretary Tehseen Gillani, Sabir Gull, Professor Zafar khan, Choudhary Ashraf khan, Masoom Ansari, Najib Afsar, Mumtaz Mirza and Councillor Ansar ali. Their main focus  was the demand that international community should come forward and help the Kashmiris to achieve their right of self determination. Many speakers condemned the Act 74 of AJK government, which they said was an instrument of slavery for the nation and stated that  Gilgit baltistan was integral part of Jammu Kashmir so Pakistan should not try to unitlaterally declare it as its province, which would not only violate the United Nation resolutions on Kashmir but also give India an execuse to do the same for Ladakh and Jammu  They speakers urged  Pakistan government not to back stab the Kashmiri movement.  They warned that  Pakistani attempts to declare provincial status for Gilgit Baltistan would backfire and , JKLF and allies will launch a worldwide movement across the world against pakistan.

Before this Public meeting JKLF Birmingham Branch election was held and Choudhry Ashraf khan was elected as President and Javid Iqbal as General Secretary. Other office bearers are Raja Tika Khan, Adnan Ali Butt, Qayum Ansari, Waseem Ansari, Nazakat Bhatti, Younis Ansari, Aurangzaib Mirza, Shoiab Janjua. All the newly elected members took oath and said that they will carry on working for the Independence of Kashmir and betterment of Kashmiris.

The JKLF event promoted Kashmiri Culture and folk music was presented by British born young Kashmiris. Women and children also participated in the event.   

Press Release

Information office

London (1 November, 2012):

Kashmir’s premier pro-independence party, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) today launched a parliamentary petition to be signed by members of Commons and Lords during an All Party Parliamentary Group on Kashmir meeting in London last night. At a meeting chaired by Lord Ahmed, who himself originates from Kashmir, many Kashmir related issues including the issue of Kashmir’s unmarked mass graves, forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings and imprisonment of minors as well as the constitutional issue of Azad Kashmir including Pakistan’s annexation of Gilgit-Baltistan territories were debated. It was decide that the APPG would support the move to launch a parliamentary petition to be sent to the President of India to ask for the return of mortal remains of Kashmiri independence leader, Maqbool Butt, who was hanged in Tihar jail in 1984 and buried inside the jail premises. Indian government has been refusing to return his mortal remains for burial in Kashmir for all these years. A JKLF delegation led by its president in UK, Azmat A Khan, gave a briefing at the high level meeting of members of parliament on several issues and asked for the group to take up action points. The members of the All Party Parliamentary Kashmir group who signed the petition during the meeting include, Lord Ahmed, Lord Qurban Hussain (a former leader of JKLF), Sir Gerald Kaufman MP (Manchester Gorton), David Ward MP (Bradford), Debbie Abrahams MP (Oldham), Gavin Shuker MP (Luton), Lady Sarah Ludworth (MEP). Another 6 MPs added their names to the petition later overnight.

A JKLF briefing paper was presented at the meeting, where members of two international NGOs and other official observers and researchers were present and took part in discussions as to how to move forward with the conflict resolution in Kashmir and bring about international political pressure on both India and Pakistan to honor their pledged for self-determination in Jammu-Kashmir, which has been pending for 65 years. JKLF president Azmat Khan and vice president London Cllr Mehmood Husssain stressed to the group that appropriate action in both houses of UK parliament and with relevant UK ministers was pertinent on the issues of human rights. The APP group decided to re-double its efforts in seeking permission to take a fact-finding mission to Kashmir. The JKLF briefing paper quoted several international reports which highlighted the mass scale abuses of human rights in Indian Held Kashmir and urged UK government to ban Indian security personnel from entering UK who were accused of involvement in atrocities in Jammu Kashmir.

JKLF delegation also raised concerns with constitutional issues in Azad Kashmir assembly elections where pro-independence candidates are barred from contesting elections and also demanded that Pakistani government should halt its program of illegally annexing Gilgit-Baltistan. The issue of Kashmiri ethnic identity in United Kingdom was also raised in the meeting.

Secretary Information

JKLF UK & Europe

Mobile: 0787 748 7696   &   0791 265 3054

Web: www.JKLF.co.uk

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) London Branch held a special meeting in Walthamstow, London to discuss the current situation of Kashmir freedom movement and role of JKLF UK zone to internationalise this long standing unresolved issue. Various suggestions were discussed in the meeting including chalking out the activities for the next six months to highlight the Kashmir issue from Kashmir perspective.

The statement issued after the meeting, said that JKLF condemns the plans of Pakistani authororities to annex Gilgit Baltistan and make it a fifth province. Any such illegal move by Pakistan Government will be resisted by the people of Jammu Kashmir with full force. The statement further said that JKLF has always been of the opinion that the most practicable, democratic and honourable solution of Jammu Kashmir issue is to allow the people of divided regions a free and fair referendum to determine their future according to their own free will.

Speaking on this occation, Senior Vice President of JKLF in UK, Cllr Mahmood Hussain said that although JKLF advocates a free Sovereign Independent Country of Jammu Kashmir, but being a democratic movement, we believe that the people of Kashmir be given the right to exercise their own right to determine their future. He further said that if Kashmir issue remains unresolved, uncertainty, instability, clouds of war will remain in the region. The international community is duty bound to mediate and involve itself in order to halt the injustice done to the people of Jammu Kashmir. Cllr Hussain further said that Indian government must stop all human rights abuses in disputed area of Kashmir. India has oppressed Kashmiris from last over 65 years and Kashmiris are virtually been imprisoned in their own homes.

The meeting was well attended by all office bearers of JKLF London branch including Cllr. Mahmmod Hussain, Javaid Rashid, Mahmood Faiz, Mohammad Farooq, Tariq Sharif, Sanawar Hussain, Tasalat Hussain, Mohammad Naveed and Mohammad Saleem. 

A delegation of the UK based pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) met with the head of the South Asia (India) section at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London in an official meeting to apprise them of the human rights and political rights situation in Kashmir. The JKLF delegation, lead by the newly elected president, Azmat A Khan, raised a number of issue with the FCO head with regards to UK policy on the issue of Kashmir and the dire human rights situation in Indian occupied areas, including reports of extra-judicial killings, false imprisonment of minors and abduction cases involving Indian security forces and the extra-ordinary case of recent discovery of ‘unidentified mass graves’ issue. During the two hour long meeting many questions were raised from both sides and issues of concern were discussed in detail in seeking UK government’s role to affect a peaceful resolution of the longstanding issue of self-determination and the position it had taken with respect to United Nations’ stance on Kashmir as well as the role of British MPs who had been vocal on pressing for peaceful end to the conflict in Jammu-Kashmir.

The high level JKLF delegation, which comprised of its president Azmat A Khan, vice president Mahmood Hussain and senior leader prof Zafar Khan, pressed on the FCO policy makers to review the ineffective and inadequate Kashmir policy and its regional security implications. They pointed to the dangers of failure and the consequential fallout both within the two sides of Kashmir as well as in the UK because of a large population of Kashmiri origin that had settled in the UK and were deeply entwined with the issue.

During the meeting the JKLF delegation made their party position clear with regard to the inept  pace and substance in bilateral negotiations between India and Pakistan officials and conveyed their discontent with ill perceived ‘confidence building measures’, which they said, had produced little dividend for the ordinary people of Jammu-Kashmir on both sides of the line of control. They put forward a number of proposals for consideration with respect to aid for India and Pakistan and the UK government’s visa policy for Indian servicemen engaged in Kashmir as well India’s visa policy for British passport holders of Kashmiri origin.

Commenting on this first important meeting since the two main factions of the JKLF were merged and a new executive body was elected in the UK in early July, a JKLF spokesman said that it was a significant high level meeting where frank and candid discussions took place and certain mutually beneficial ideas and proposals were exchanged and that there would be a follow up meeting in the new year.

FOR FURTHER DETAILS , please contact :

Azmat A Khan,  +44 (0)7912653054,  Azmatkhan@jklf.orangehome.co.uk