Kashmiri Diaspora An Excluded Identity in Britain.

To,
Ed Miliband MP,
Leader Labour Party and opposition leader in house of commons UK


Kashmiri Diaspora An Excluded Identity in Britain.

On 15th August 1947The British Paramountcy ceased to exist and the sovereignty of the Kashmir state was legally reverted to the people of Kashmir automatically This reversion of sovereignty to the people of Kashmir was in the consequences of the provision 7B of the Indian Independence Act1947.The people of Kashmir had a legal Right of Self-Determination to shape their own destinies by forming their own Government? After 64 years of this conflict between India and Pakistan fought full scale wars and forcibly divided former princely state Jammu Kashmir into four parts Indian Occupied Jammu Kashmir (IOK),Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, (POK), Azad Kashmir, Gigit Baltistan , Aksai Chin (Chinese control areas) Pakistan gifted to China in 1962.We urge to all extend to their full support for United Independent Kashmir, free of military and every sort of weapons. Inclusion of British Kashmiri as a ethnic group in Britain.We would like to draw your attention to the other forms of human rights violation on both sides of the division line in Kashmir. The worse form of the violation is to bar any person or political party from participating in elections, joining employment or issuing any publication without pledging support to state’s accession to Pakistan or the Indian Constitution. These restrictions closes all the doors for peaceful, democratic and civil forms of protest and leave young Kashmiris vulnerable to ‘illegal’ and ‘extreme’ means of expressing their aspirations for independence.
Another rights violation of Kashmiri Diaspora which has roots in Jammu Kashmir but migrated to Britain is the negation and non-recognition of Kashmiri identity in Britain and branding British Kashmiris as Pakistanis or Indians depending which side of the division they come from. It is time that British MPs ask the governments of India and Pakistan to lift undemocratic banns on political participation in democratic process, release all political prisoners, issue state subject in a card form and let all state subjects move freely across the division line, initially all the families that are divided across the division line to be free to see each other without going through years long bureaucratic processes. However, as you can see the issue is primarily a political one and needs political approach to address the issue of military and civil occupation of Jammu Kashmir by India and Pakistan that causes HR violations in Jammu Kashmir. The following measures to resolve the Kashmir Question according the will and wishes of the people of Kashmir:

Withdraw all foreign forces from all parts of Kashmir state;
Release of all political Prisoners including the mortal remains of the leader of national independence and unification movement Mohammed Maqbool Bhatt from Tihar prison Delhi;
Complete freedom of trade and movement across the division line and internationally for all the State Subjects ;
Freedom of Press and Assembly ;
Removal of all restrictions on the politics of independence for free and fair elections in the entire state for regional assemblies and a national assembly;
Making necessary arrangements for Self Determination including and with the right to independence through a fair, free and democratic mechanism.


Nadeem Aslam
Secretary General JKNIA
E-mail nadeemjknia@aol.com

Jammu Kashmir National Independence Alliance UK (JKNIA)

Thanks to Shamas Rehman for his contribution to draft above letter.