A Labour MP has sparked outrage after meeting with members of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) UK and JKLF diplomatic bureau chairman Zafar Khan in the British Parliament to discuss the ongoing trial of Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik. JKLF is a banned organisation.
JKLF has been declared an unlawful association in India for inciting terror and abetting secessionism in Jammu and Kashmir.
MP Rachel Hopkins, who represents Luton South, which has a large Mirpuri diaspora, wrote on X: This afternoon JKLF UK and my constituent Zafar Khan held an important meeting to update us on Yasin Malik’s ongoing trial and appeal against the death sentence.I continue to stand up for Kashmiris and their right to self-determination. The tweet includes pictures of the meeting being held in a committee room of the British Parliament.
JKLF chairman Malik was given a life sentence in 2022 after pleading guilty to charges relating to terrorism and sedition. The NIA appealed his sentence and is seeking the death penalty.
Overseas Friends of BJP UK president Kuldeep Shekhawat told TOI that this move by the Labour MP is unacceptable as JKLF is a banned organisation in India and that this proves Labour’s continued support to extremism and policy of interference in India’s internal affairs,
Vinod Tikoo, volunteer at the Jammu Kashmir Study Centre UK, told TOI: Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of former Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was kidnapped in 1989 in Kashmir, has identified Yasin as the person who kidnapped her. For an MP to host Yasin’s sympathisers in the UK Parliament is murder of democracy.
Friends of India Society International UK said: It’s appalling to see a British parliamentarian sympathising and intentionally disregarding the multitude of facts regarding Yasin Malik and his terror-affiliated organisation, JKLF, to cater to vote-bank politics.
Indian Kashmiri Muslim Javed Beigh wrote on X: Yasin Malik stands accused of initiating a violent, bloody, Islamist separatist movement at the behest ofPakistan in early 1990s which… completely destroyed Indian ethnic Kashur-speaking Kashmiri society. Please desist from using our misfortune to further your political career.
