JKNIA Chairman calls UK-wide protests against Pakistan, demands end to repression in PoJK

JKNIA Chairman Mahmood Kashmiri urged the Kashmiri diaspora in the UK to join Monday's protests supporting the Joint Awami Action Committee. Demonstrating outside Pakistani diplomatic missions, he condemned alleged human rights abuses, crackdowns, and the arrest of leader Shaukat Nawaz Mir in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Mahmood Kashmiri, Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir National Independence Alliance (JKNIA), has called on diaspora Kashmiris living in the United Kingdom to participate in demonstrations scheduled for Monday in support of the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), accusing Pakistani authorities of continued human rights violations and repression in the region. In a video statement, Kashmiri urged people across the UK and Kashmiris from all sections of society, including women, children and elderly people, to join the protests, describing the movement as a struggle for human rights, dignity, national identity and fundamental freedoms of the people in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).

He announced demonstrations across the UK. The protests are scheduled outside the Pakistani Consulate in Bradford, Manchester and Birmingham, and outside the Pakistani High Commission in London. Expressing solidarity with the JAAC, Kashmiri said his organisation had supported the committee since the beginning of its movement. He vowed to continue demonstrations until Pakistani forces ended what he described as killings, oppression and harassment of Kashmiris, and the authorities implemented the committee's Charter of Demands.

He also highlighted ongoing demonstrations outside Pakistani diplomatic missions in Bradford and Birmingham, claiming that British Kashmiris had been protesting against Pakistan's policies for more than five months. He also referred to demonstrations outside the British Prime Minister's residence in London. Criticising Islamabad's handling of the situation, Kashmiri alleged that Pakistani forces had intensified their crackdown in PoJK, citing reported drone attacks, the abduction of young people and the alleged withholding of the bodies of deceased individuals.

He also raised concerns over the arrest of JAAC leader Shaukat Nawaz Mir, questioning the authorities' subsequent claims regarding his whereabouts. Kashmiri maintained that the movement was centred on restoring fundamental human rights that people of PoJK had been denied for decades. (ANI)