‘Million March’ in London calls for resolution of Kashmir issue
* Bilawal attends event; welcomed on the stage by a jubilant crowd g Miscreants of PTI attempt to sabotage the event by creating unrest
LONDON: Thousands of people supporting the Kashmir cause came out on the streets of the British capital to express solidarity with the citizens of Indian-held Kashmir in their decades-long struggle for the right of self-determination.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his sister Aseefa Bhutto Zardari also participated in the rally. Some miscreants threw bottles at the stage from where the participants of Kashmir Million March were to be addressed. Former prime minister of Azad Kashmir Barrister Sultan Mehmood said India’s sympathisers tried to sabotage the procession. “We have gathered here to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir and to draw attention of the international community towards Kashmir issue,” Mehmood said, adding that this struggle would continue till the independence of Kashmir.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari attended the Million March to pledge solidarity with the people of Kashmir and to reaffirm his unconditional support for their struggle for self-determination. Bilawal was received by a jubilant crowd who welcomed him on stage. However, some miscreants of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf attempted to sabotage the event by creating unrest for cheap publicity. Despite efforts by the London Police to secure and usher the PPP chairman off the stage because of saboteurs’ violent behaviour, Bilawal stood resolute and responded, “These agents who are trying to damage the cause of Kashmir and intimidate me into leaving should know that I will not leave before completing my speech. This is not about me or you, this is about the people of Kashmir”.
Bilawal vowed that he will not play partisan politics or diplomatic games with the futures and the lives of the people of Kashmir. The march demanded a peaceful solution to the longstanding Kashmir issue. It started from the Trafalgar Square and concluded at 10 Downing Street to protest against the human rights violations by Indian troops in the occupied Kashmir. A petition was submitted asking the British government to impress upon India to resolve the Kashmir dispute. In a statement, Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Gilani declared the Million March a much-needed step and stated that it is to give the world a message that terrorism has no direct or indirect link to the Kashmir liberation movement and the people of Kashmir were struggling for their genuine right.
India had objected to Britain allowing the march during the recent visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, but London had reiterated its commitment to freedom of speech as well as its reassurance that it was for India and Pakistan to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir issue. In a significant intervention, India’s Deputy High Commissioner Varinder Paul had recently sounded a cautionary note on Indo-UK relations before a London audience comprising Business Secretary Vince Cable.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his sister Aseefa Bhutto Zardari also participated in the rally. Some miscreants threw bottles at the stage from where the participants of Kashmir Million March were to be addressed. Former prime minister of Azad Kashmir Barrister Sultan Mehmood said India’s sympathisers tried to sabotage the procession. “We have gathered here to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir and to draw attention of the international community towards Kashmir issue,” Mehmood said, adding that this struggle would continue till the independence of Kashmir.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari attended the Million March to pledge solidarity with the people of Kashmir and to reaffirm his unconditional support for their struggle for self-determination. Bilawal was received by a jubilant crowd who welcomed him on stage. However, some miscreants of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf attempted to sabotage the event by creating unrest for cheap publicity. Despite efforts by the London Police to secure and usher the PPP chairman off the stage because of saboteurs’ violent behaviour, Bilawal stood resolute and responded, “These agents who are trying to damage the cause of Kashmir and intimidate me into leaving should know that I will not leave before completing my speech. This is not about me or you, this is about the people of Kashmir”.
Bilawal vowed that he will not play partisan politics or diplomatic games with the futures and the lives of the people of Kashmir. The march demanded a peaceful solution to the longstanding Kashmir issue. It started from the Trafalgar Square and concluded at 10 Downing Street to protest against the human rights violations by Indian troops in the occupied Kashmir. A petition was submitted asking the British government to impress upon India to resolve the Kashmir dispute. In a statement, Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Gilani declared the Million March a much-needed step and stated that it is to give the world a message that terrorism has no direct or indirect link to the Kashmir liberation movement and the people of Kashmir were struggling for their genuine right.
India had objected to Britain allowing the march during the recent visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, but London had reiterated its commitment to freedom of speech as well as its reassurance that it was for India and Pakistan to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir issue. In a significant intervention, India’s Deputy High Commissioner Varinder Paul had recently sounded a cautionary note on Indo-UK relations before a London audience comprising Business Secretary Vince Cable.
INTERNATIONAL » WORLD
LONDON, October 27, 2014
Updated: October 28, 2014 00:26 IST
Bilawal heckled at London march
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ReutersBilawal Bhutto Zardari, , chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party.
Protestors were furious with Mr. Bhutto because they saw the PPP as attempting to hijack the campaign to its political advantage.
The “Million March” organized to highlight the Jammu and Kashmir issue got off to a disruptive start when Pakistan People’s Party leader Bilawal Bhutto had to be hurriedly taken off the dais at the Trafalgar Square on Sunday when hostile crowds booed and heckled him while sending a volley of projectiles including empty plastic bottles and cans at the dais.
Organised by Sultan Mahmood Choudhry, former prime minister of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, the march – billed as a show of strength for the cause of an independent Kashmir – quickly revealed the political fractures in Pakistan’s polity and the brittle relations between the PPP, former cricketer Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf, and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
Most of the protestors however were Kashmiris who had come from different parts of the United Kingdom, and their fury with Mr. Bhutto was because they saw the PPP as attempting to hijack the campaign to its political advantage.
“This is about the right of self determination of the Kashmiris, and should not be used by political parties for their own ends,” a participant who had come from the Midlands said.
Though billed as a million strong march, the crowd that gathered on a Sunday evening at London’s iconic protest side was estimated at around one thousand. Waving yellow and green flags of ‘Azad Kashmir’ and holding up placards denouncing India, the overwhelmingly male crowd marched the short distance to 10 Downing Street where the All Parties Hurriyat Conference submitted a memorandum in which it urged Britain to support the demand for self-determination for the Kashmiris, citing the examples of Scotland, East Timor and South Sudan.
In her recent visit to the UK, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had raised India’s concerns over the march and objected to Britain allowing groups that were hostile to India-UK relations to hold such demonstrations. Britain refused to ban the march stating its commitment to the freedom of speech. However it said that the Kashmir issue was for India and Pakistan to solve without the intervention of any other country including Britain.
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