London moot puts spotlight on Kashmiri half-widows, political prisoners

LONDON (PNI) Institutionalizing cause of Kashmiri half-widows and political prisoners is need of the hour, speakers contended at a conference inside British parliament on Wednesday.

Addressing the conference “Kashmiri half widows and political prisoners” at British parliament, speakers from cross section of people urged the international community, especially the UK government, to play their part to bring relief to Kashmiris.

Hosted by Fahim Kayani, president of Tehreek-e-Kashmir (TeK) UK, the conference was chaired by Paul Bristow MP which discussed the situation in Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIoJK).

Parliamentarians, professionals, academicians, practitioners, journalists, British Kashmiris, allies and other participants from overseas discussed the highly militarized situation in IIoJK.

The conference expressed “its solidarity with the Kashmiri people suffering unprecedented abuse of human rights and supports their struggle for a just cause which is right to self-determination” as enshrined in various resolutions passed by the UN General Assembly and Security Council, from time to time.

According to a TeK UK statement, the speakers specially urged the international community to act fast against settler colonialism under which more than three million Indians, mostly non-Muslims, are being settled in IIoJK to artificially change demography of the UN-designated disputed region which is blatant violation of Geneva Conventions.

British lawmakers including Rebecca Roseanne Long-Bailey MP, Paulette Hamilton MP, Jack Edgar Brereton MP, Lord Qurban Hussain,
Jess Phillips MP, Matt Rodda MP, Muhammad Yasin MP attended the conference.

Habib ur Rehman Affaqi, director KIRC and Dr Saliha Uysal from Istanbul made specific proposals as how to seek end to illegal arrest of Kashmiris and improve situation of Kashmiri half-widows.

Ch Ghafarat Shahid , Rehana Ali , Ch Ikram ul Haq, Ch Muhammad Aziz and others also participated in the discussions.

Specifically shedding light on the plight of Kashmiri half-widows, the speakers discussed how these Kashmiri women are undergoing social crisis because of various issues.

Calling on international women’s rights defenders to speak for Kashmiri half-widows and seek return of their loved ones who are in illegal detention of occupying Indian forces in IIoJK, the speakers said there was a need to institutionalize the consensus of Islamic scholars regarding their remarriage and right to property.

Half-widows are only specific to Indian-occupied Kashmir

These are the Kashmiri women whose husbands have been forcibly disappeared by Indian occupying forces but are not yet declared deceased.

The speakers also expressed serious concern over illegal and fraud cases against Kashmiri political and pro-freedom leadership and activists.

While India has put their lives at risk in jails, the conference said that the apartheid regime installed in IIoJK by India has gone after personal properties of the Hurriyat Conference leaders and activists.

Masarat Alam Bhat, Peer Saifullah, Dr Muhammad Qasim, Aasiya Andrabi, Yasin Malik,Shabir Shah, Ayaz Akbar, Nahida Nasreen, Fehmeeda Sofi and others have been illegally abducted by the Indian regime and put in jails across India.

“So far, no Indian court could prove a single case against them,” said Kayani, TeK UK president.

“The Indian terrorizing agencies have sought death penalty in case of Yasin Malik which is total travesty of justice. It is complete murder of standards of justice but Indian courts are simply extension of Indian murderous system which is being implemented on Kashmiris,” said Kayani.

The Kashmiri activists at the conference said: “It is incumbent upon the British lawmakers to press their government to stand up and stop from annihilation of Kashmiri life.”