JKSDMI launches extensive campaign for the release of Kashmiri leaders from Indian prisons
Bradford: Jammu and Kashmir Self-Determination Movement International has launched a comprehensive campaign for the release of detained Kashmiri leaders in Indian jails.
Meetings have been held with British ministers including Andrew Stephenson, Stuart Andrew, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner, MP Barrister Imran Hussain, and other leaders. In collaboration with various Kashmiri organizations, JKSDMI aims to effectively raise this issue through personal contacts with members of parliament and an All-Party Kashmir Conference in the UK.
After organizing events in different cities of Britain, an All-Party Kashmir Conference will be held in the British Parliament on July 18. Kashmiri leaders and members of parliament will address the conference. The ministers and parliamentarians who attended the meetings assured the representatives of the movement of their full support and pledged to engage in dialogue with the British government for the release of these imprisoned leaders. Their efforts will focus on bringing the issue of British Kashmiris to the attention of the Indian government and the British government’s protest.
As part of these efforts, representatives of the JKSDMI held a meeting with Member of Parliament for Pudsey and Minister of Sport, Stuart Andrew, to initiate the campaign. During a visit to Bradford, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner, Shadow Minister Barrister Imran Hussain MP, and Senior Vice-Chair of All-Party Kashmir Parliamentary Group, Tahir Ali, were also briefed on the JKSDMI campaign. They were requested to not only present the Kashmiri cause in parliament but also raise it in the party’s annual conference by uniting the party’s leadership, Shadow Foreign Secretary, and other leaders.
Similarly, representatives of the movement met with British Minister Andrew Stephenson in Nelson and discussed the petition and the latest situation regarding Kashmir with the former councillors of the Conservative Muslim Forum North West, Muhammad Nawaz and Mahboob Ahmed, and Chairperson of CMF, Sameena Khan. Representatives of JKSDMI, including Raja Najabat Hussain (Sitara-e-Pakistan), Sardar Abdul Rahman Khan, Herry Botta, and other leaders appealed to the British government to play its role in resolving the Kashmir issue and ensure the release of all political leaders of occupied Kashmir who have been unjustly detained in various Indian prisons, especially Yasin Malik, the leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front. All members of Parliament were invited to actively collaborate with the local Kashmiri constituents in their respective constituencies to work towards ensuring the right to vote for the local Kashmiris. Their assistance in reversing the negative perception and propaganda against detained Kashmiri leaders by the Indian National Investigation Agency will be crucial.
The future programs of JKSDMI will be strengthened by the participation of deputy mayors, city mayors, lord mayors, councilors, and pro-Kashmir members of parliament, which will present the cause of the freedom movement in Jammu and Kashmir more effectively in the parliaments, diplomatic forums, and political platforms of Britain and Europe. This will enable Kashmiris to assert their fundamental and birthright, a right that has been recognized by the international community through various United Nations Security Council resolutions, apart from the governments of Pakistan and India.