Kashmiri delegation take up Yasin Malik imprisonment issue with UK Foreign Office JKLF delegation apprise Head of FCO in London on current volatile situation in IOK

London 23 Oct,2016: A high level Kashmiri delegation met with the head of Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Nicola Mockeridge, in London to bring to UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson’s attention to the case of illegal imprisonment of Kashmiri leaders in Indian Occupied Kashmir and the deteriorating health condition of the incarcerated, JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik, whose kidney and heart condition has worsened during his imprisonment since 8th July, in Srinagar, due to ill treatment in prison and medical negligence. The delegation, lead by JKLF’s former UK president Azmat A Khan, who is currently heading organistion’s Political & Diplomatic Campaigns, Secretary General of the London based human rights organisation, JKCHR, Dr Nazir Gelani and the London representative of the Kashmiri Democratic Freedom Party, Ershad Malik.

The Kashmiri delegation urged the UK government through FCO to intervene on humanitarian basis to save Kashmiri leader’s life and urge India to release all political prisoners including young and elderly leaders, women and children who have been arrest in their thousands during the past 3 months. The Kashmiri delegation also urged FCO to take effective measures through the UN mechanism to bring to halt gross human rights violation against the civilian population who are exercising their right to protest against India’s draconian laws in Kashmiri and denying the Kashmiri people their right to self-determination with brutal force.

They expressed concerns with the UK government’s docile policy of none intervention in Kashmir as ineffective and inadequate and said that as a member of the UN Security Council Britain had a political and historical responsibility to play its role in bringing about lasting peace in Jammu-Kashmir where over a hundred of innocent protestors have been killed nearly 300 youth blinded by lethal weapons such pellet guns. The Kashmiri delegation also pointed to regional security implications and the dangers of growing anti-western sentiments in Jammu-Kashmir and in South Asia because of the complete silence over Kashmir uprising in the recent months by international community and the media.

The JKLF underlined the consequential fallout within both side of Kashmir as well as in the Diaspora community in UK, which is deeply worried about the ongoing unrest and the repression in Jammu-Kashmir, including the arbitrary arrests of many of the  JKLF leaders and  Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Shabir Shah, Syed Ali Gelani and human rights lawyer Khuram Pervez.

During the hour and half long meeting, several questions were raised by the Head of FCO and the Kashmiri delegation made it clear that the current standoff between India and Pakistan and the lack of progress in bilateral negotiations between Indian and Pakistan has lead to deep resentment and discontent and the so called ‘confidence building measures’, have failed to build on any hope for an early resolution of the Kashmir Issue. A number of proposals were put forward by the Kashmiri delegation for consideration regarding the extra-judicial killings, false imprisonment of minors and abduction cases involving security forces and the local state government activities which are in conflict with the international law.

JKLF -UK chapter is lobbying the UK parliament on Monday, 24th October, to bring to their attention the case of Kashmiri prisoners and the ongoing repression, which has gone into 106 days today.

Spokesman JKLF UK Zone.
Shakeel Mirza.