Deplorable violent protests on India’s independence Day at London

What was meant to be a peaceful celebration of Indian Independence at the Indian High Commission turned into organised violence perpetrated against Indian diaspora under the pretext of protest. Violent protests erupted outside the Indian High Commission in London on 15th of August, where thousands of Pakistani immigrants and anti-India groups took to the streets to disrupt the Indian Independence Day celebrations.

Protestors waving Pakistani and pro-Khalistani separatists flags arrived in large number of chartered coaches from all around the country, including Birmingham, Manchester, and Bradford. These 5000+ protestors had only one purpose – which was to interrupt, intimidate and attack the peaceful Indians marking their 73rd Independence Day. The crowds were chanting ‘Kashmir banega Pakistan’ (which translates to, Kashmir will become Pakistan) outside of the Indian High Commission. Many Labour party British Members of Parliament-Shabana Mahmood, Khalid Mahmood, Muhammad Yasin, Liam Byrne and Lord Nazir Ahmed were present there and were giving provocative speeches.

Many Kashmiri Pandits including Mrs Krishna Bhan President of Indo-European Kashmir Forum and HCUK Director for Education and Kashmiri Issues  who was also at India House described the scene as that “ This is a similar recurrence in 1990, where 400,000 Hindus were hounded out of the Kashmir Valley by Protestors chanting ‘AZADI’ which translates to ‘freedom’, outlining the dichotomy and faults in the Pakistani narrative of freedom. Twenty nine years ago  on 19 January,1990  Kashmiri Hindus /Pandits were given 24 hours eviction notice by terrorist organisations. It was the day when the threats of convert, die or escape replaced the sounds of evening Azaan from the majority of mosques in the Valley in Kashmir. We recall the horror of waking up to hear this command and the fear of death that was put into their hearts. To safeguard their lives the Kashmiri Hindus had no choice but to leave their homeland. Nearly 500,000 Kashmiri Hindus/Pandits were forced to leave their homeland through a genocidal campaign unleashed by the militants. The findings of the National Human Rights Commission of India is on record, having stated that the circumstances that forced out the entire minority of Kashmiri Pandits/ Hindus from their homeland are akin to genocide. This can be seen as a serious indictment of the J&K Government’s responsibility of that time. Subsequently, neither the State Government nor the Central Government had taken cognizance of NHRC’s findings.  Our people were made homeless overnight on 19th January, 1990 and since then they have been moving from pillar to post, demanding their fundamental basic human rights.The  rich  cultural heritage of Kashmiri Hindus is in decline, after the massacre, the local Hindu temples were destroyed, as were the houses of the Kashmiri Pandits. Any efforts to return them to the Valley, with guarantees provided for their safety, have been repeatedly thwarted.On 5 August 2019 the Government of India took a democratic action passed by both houses to abrogate Articles 370 and 35a, which hopefully will now pave the way to rehabilitate the displaced Kashmiri Hindus back to their homeland with a guarantee of their safety from the Islamists terrorists.”

Anil Bhanot OBE, Founding Member of HCUK, said that when he arrived to celebrate India’s eventual sovereignty at the abrogation of the special political status to Kashmir the entire Kingsway was chocka block with coaches from Midlands and North with Pakistanis come to demonstrate at India House. The demonstration was tense with no room to move.

“To my mind, the special status of article 370 had led to thousands being killed, the ethnic cleansing of a 1/2 million Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, the region remaining undeveloped as the Muslim youths have to go and find jobs in neighbouring states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttra-Khand etc. The Kashmiri Abdullah political dynasty seemed only interested in holding onto their power base while other Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists suffered economically and culturally.”

“What of this so called ‘Muslim majority’? The troubled area is just 5 districts – Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramullah, Kulgam and Pulwama – representing 15% of the total geographical area of Indian Kashmir and also only 15% Muslim population out of the total population, with 85% supporting India and the abrogation of Article 370. There are of course Muslims in other 17 districts too, like Kargil, but all other Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists want to unite with India fully. The so called ‘Muslim majority’ is in fact in the Kashmir occupied by Pakistan (POK), not in the Indian Jammu & Kashmir (& Ladhak – Buddhist) state.

“It looked as though the Kashmiris from POK and other Pakistanis came to demonstrate in their droves. Along with them were the Labour Party MP’s mainly from Pakistani origin came to demonstrate the democratic decision of a sovereign nation India, thus showing no regard for democracy and failing their other Indian constituents. Pak-i-stan – the land of the ‘Pure’, a literal meaning – was created for Muslims to remain ‘pure’ of the Kaffir Infidel Hindus but now in the UK, where we worked hard for equality, for these British Labour MP’s to come to demonstrate to maintain this ‘purity’, this ‘special status’ for their fellow Muslims in India is beyond today’s thinking.

“Jeremy Corbyn their leader tweeting to support the ‘supremacist’ demands of his MP’s is rather frightening, the Labour Party is known to have become anti-Semitic but it seems, now, it has become anti-Hindu too. The Conservative party’s confused statements rather than openly coming out to fully support the Indian Government does need clarification too. However since I had bad experience from Jeremy Corbyn in his attempts to divide our Hindu community through the caste legislation, whilst the Conservative party supported us then, I think it is safe to assume after his support for a special status of Kashmiri Muslims supremacy, that under Jeremy Corbyn the Labour Party has indeed become anti-Hindu.”

Hindu Council UK