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 of India
India House, Aldwych, London  

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 made a political decision to hang Afzal Guru just as he did 29 years ago to hang the founding leader of the Kashmiri independence movement, Maqbool Butt, on 11^th Februrary 1984. It would appear that India learnt nothing from that mistake.

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 cannot hang the Kashmiri sentiments to be free. Our people in Jammu-Kashmiri have not forgotten the fact that your government did not have the decency to return the mortal remains of Maqbool Butt Shaheed to his family and we hope that your government will not make the same mistake again in the case of Afzal Guru. It was the hanging of Maqbool Butt in 1984 that fuelled the people’s revolution in late 1980s and we firmly believe that Afzal Guru’s blood will haunt Indian occupation forces in 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 asking him to authorise the handing over of mortal remains of Maqbool Butt Shaheed to his family.

Azmat A .Khan
President. Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF-UK)
President@jklf.co.uk

___________________________________

Joint Letter from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Kashmir, UK

11^th February, 2013

To

His Excellency, Parnab Mukherjee

President of Republic of India, New Delhi,

India

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 Coaker, MP (Gedling)

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)              

London - 9th February 2013 (----Press Release---)

JKLF in London has organised a protest demonstration at the Indian High Commission in London on Monday, 11th February, and will be holding a meeting with UK members of parliament to discuss this issue along with the demand for the return of mortal remains of Maqbool Butt and Afzal Guru on the evening. 

JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik, who is currently on a private visit to Pakistan, is sitting on a 24 hunger strike in Islamabad to protest against the hanging of Afzal Guru, The JKLF supreme head Amanullah khan who is suffering from severe ill health is also on hungers strike in Islamabad today to protest against Pakistani silence over the issue.

Press Secretary,

JKLF UK Zone                     

Email: info@jklf.co.uk

Web: www.jklf.co.uk            /           www.JKLF.ORG

London (08 February 2013)

Kashmiri pro-independence organization the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has called for a shutter-down protest in Kashmir on the 29^th Martyrdom anniversary of Kashmir’s independence leader, Maqbool Butt Shaheed. JKLF will take out a protest rally at Maqbool Butt’s birth place in Tregham, district Kupwara. Meanwhile, the UK chapter of the JKLF will hold a protest demonstration at the Indian High Commission in London 1pm – 3pm, when a parliamentary delegation of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Kashmir, led by its chair Lord Ahmed, will hand in a petition to the president of India to demand that Indian government should hand over the mortal remains of the Kashmiri leader to his family in Kashmir. The parliamentary petition has been signed by the following 33 Mps, Peers and MEPs.

1.      Lord Nazir Ahmed                      

2.      Lord Qurban Hussain

3.      Lord Bill McKenzie

4.      Baroness Beverley Hughes

5.      Lady Sarah Ludford, MEP            

6.      Phil Bennion, MEP           

7.      Sajjad Karim, MEP

8.      Linda McAvan, MEP

9.      Sir Gerald Kaufman, MP (Manchester)       

10. David Ward, MP  (Bradford)                        

11. Debbie Abrahams, MP (Oldham)                 

12. Gavin Shuker, MP  (Luton)                          

13. Shabana Mahmood, MP Birmingham)         

14. Fiona Mctaggart , MP (Slough)                    

15. Kelvin Hopkins, MP (Luton)                        

16. Andrew Stephenson, MP (Pendle)                

17. Yasmin Qureshi, MP (Bolton)                                    

18. John Hemming, MP (Birmingham)   

19. Chris Leslie, MP (Nottingham)      

20. David Nuttall, MP (Bury)                        

21. George Galloway, MP (Bradford West)    

22. Vernon Coaker, MP (Gedling)                    

23. Simon Danczuk, MP (Rochdale)             

24. Stephen Timms, MP (EastHam)                 

25. Lucy Powell, MP (Manchester Central)

26. David Blunkett, MP (Sheffield)               

27. Ian Austin, MP (Dudley)

28. Steve Baker, MP (Wycombe)                     

29. Andrew Griffiths, MP (Burton)

30. Richard Harrington, MP (Watford)             

31. Jonathan Lord, MP (Woking)

32. Graham Stringer, MP (Manchester)            

33. Sarah Champion, MP (Rotherham)

      

JKLF branch members from London, Luton, Watford, Slough, Peterborough, Birmingham, Dudley, Nottingham, Manchester and Bradford have already made arrangement to arrive in London on the day. 

A seminar on the life and legacy of Maqbool Butt Shaheed will be held in the House of Lords (Room 1) at 6pm to commemorate his 29^th death anniversary. JKLF Zonal president, Mr Azmat A. Khan and other Kashmiri leaders, Peers and Members of UK Parliament are expected to speak at the seminar to highlight world apathy towards the issue of Kashmir and debate the deteriorating human rights situation in occupied Kashmir.

Note for press: The petition will be handed in to the Indian High Commission, Aldwych, London at 2.00 pm. Those wanting to attend the seminar will need to arrive 1 hour early to obtain entry clearance to the Houses of Parliament.  

Press Secretary,

JKLF UK Zone                     

Email: info@jklf.co.uk

JKLF in United Kingdom will commemorate the 29^th Martyrdom anniversary of its founder Maqbool Butt Shaheed. A Protest in front of Indian High Commission London has been organized on 11 February 2013, in which protesters will handover a memorandum to Indian officials demanding remains of Maqbool Butt Shaheed returned to his family.

A seminar will also be held in House of Lords on 11 February 2013 in which British Parliamentarians, prominent Kashmiri leaders in UK and other intellectuals have been invited.

JKLF in UK have also launched a parliamentary petition to be signed by members of House of Commons and Lords during an All Party Parliamentary Group on Kashmir meeting held in London on 31 October 2012. So far 30 members of UK parliament have signed the petition.

Maqbool Butt, Kashmir’s most revered leader of the independence movement and a former ‘prisoner of conscience’,  was imprisoned in Pakistan for his radical views and was  labelled as an ‘enemy agent’ there, but ironically hanged by India on 11 February, 1984, exactly one week before his 46^th birthday.  He was executed inside Delhi’s Tihar Jail where he had been imprisoned for 8 years awaiting trial of a politically motivated case against him.

Apart from the programmes mentioned above, there will be many events by JKLF branches throughout United Kingdom including a large public gathering in Luton on 17^th February 2013.

JKLF in Britain has appealed people in Britain to join these protests and support these demonstrations by bringing their families.

Press Secretary

JKLF UK Zone

(London) The UK chapter of the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), in its extra ordinary meeting of the executive and working committee held in Watford near London, has warned of dire consequences if JKLF leaders arrested during the ‘jail bharo’ movement are not released immediately without charge along with many other Kashmiri activists who were sentenced earlier in the month under the draconian laws and framed up charges from 20 years back.  

In a press statement released from London, the JKLF announced that their members will start picketing Indian missions in UK and Europe including embassies and consulates to draw the world attention to the plight of Kashmiri prisoners in J&K and in Indian prisons.

The JKLF statement said that Kashmir has become a police state where freedom of expression and freedom of speech is dealt with long prison sentences and where men, women and small children are imprisoned because they demand their right to freedom and independence.  Instead of punishing the 500 army and security forces personnel who have been named in the latest report as the perpetrators of human rights violations including, rape, molestation, kidnapping and extrajudicial killings, the Indian and state authorities continue to punish innocent people belonging to many different pro-freedom organisations.  During the 3 hour long meeting, JKLF leaders expressed hope that Indian civil society seems to have woken up in Delhi over the case of  a student rape and needed to pay urgent attention to what was happening in Kashmir.

“Our demand is simple that all political prisoners should be released immediately and the draconian laws that prevent people from protesting against injustices and atrocities must be withdrawn.

“JKLF is not just a name but it’s a face of the revolutionary movement, and each one of its leaders and workers is committed to the cause of national independence and if Indian and state authorities think that they will be able to supress our movement by imprisoning and awarding long sentences to freedom fighters, they have to think again”, the JKLF leaders said.

JKLF delegates including the office bearers from London, Luton, Watford, Slough, Bedford, Peterborough, Birmingham, Nottingham, Derby, Stoke, Walsall, Manchester, Oldham and Bradford attended the meeting and condemn the Indian action in Kashmir. During the meeting an action plan was drawn up for coming months to draw world attention to the plight of Kashmir.

JKLF president Azmat Khan, told the meeting that international diplomatic and political pressures was needed, urged members to contact their members of UK and European Parliament to apprise them of  the latest situation in Kashmir.  He said that he was going to raise the issue with international human rights organizations and the UN Human Rights Council. He said, that he was hopeful that Pakistani mission in the UN would draw the attention of the international community towards the dire situation in Indian occupied Kashmir during the forthcoming UN Security Council meeting where the Syrian situation is to be debated. 

On 3rd December, 2012, a kangaroo court in Jammu awarded life sentences to two Kashmiris Sheikh Nazir Ahmed and Shoukat Ahmed, who had both spent nearly 15 years in Indian jails without trial after being arrested in 1990s. They were released on bail over 7 years ago but rearrested recently and awarded life imprisonment.    

JKLF has launched a five phase “Jail Baro Tahreek (Court Arrest Movement)” in Indian Occupied Kashmir against life sentencing of Kashmiri prisoners, death sentences and subjecting them to the worst kind of torture. So far Indian authorities in Kashmir have arrested over 100 prominent figures of the prominent figures of JKLF including Chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik, Bashir Ahmed Butt, S M Afzal, Showkat Ahmad Bakshi, Mr.Khawaja Abdul Majid Wani, Zahoor Ahmed Butt, Javed Ahmed Mir, Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, Mohammad Ishaq Ganai (President Islamabad District), Abdul Sattar (president of District kulgam), Rafiq ahmad war (district president Kupwara), Abdul Rashid Magloo (district president Baramulla) along with families of Kashmiri prisoners and prominent figures of Human rights organizations.

Press Secretary,

JKLF – UK

Email: info@jklf.co.uk

London (6th January 2013): Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) London branch has extended its full support to the five-phase protest programme “Jail Bharo Tehreek” against life sentencing of Kashmiri prisoners, death sentences and subjecting them to the worst kind of torture. The agitation started on Friday 4th January from the party headquarters at Maisuma, Srinagar in which around 50 activists including JKLF Chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik were arrested and sent to central Jail. The agitation will continue till January 14 in all cities and towns of Indian occupied Kashmir.

In a statement issued after the emergency meeting of JKLF London Branch, the statement said that India seems to have started the new judicial torture policy to suppress the genuine sentiments of Kashmiri people. The branch lauded the efforts of JKLF leadership by highlighting the much important issue of plight of Kashmiri prisoners. The statement further said that Illegal life imprisonment, death sentence & torture cannot stop the kashmiri peoples struggle for national independence.

Speaking on this occasion, JKLF London Branch President Mahmood Faiz said that Kashmiri’s living abroad stand with the leadership of JKLF, fully support the programme to highlight the plight of Kashmiri prisoners across India.

The meeting was addressed by Senor Vice President of JKLF in UK, Cllr Mahmood Hussain. He said that India has not yet learnt a lesson by hanging Maqbool Butt Shaheed and killing thousands of Kashmiris. Cllr Mahmood Hussain added that such actions by the Indian government over the years have given us Kashmiri's more courage and strength to fight against the forcible occupation of our motherland.

The meeting was well attended by the members of JKLF London branch including office bearers Tariq Sharif, Mohammad Saleem, Javaid Rashid, Tasalat Hussain, Sanawar Hussain, Naveed Ahmed and others.

Press Secretary,

JKLF London Branch