Pakistan throws iron curtain across Kashmir, Gilgit as protests break outside Pak High Commission in London

The Jammu and Kashmir National Independence Alliance (JKNIA), a UK -based umbrella alliance comprising Kashmiri diaspora and civil organisations, held a protest demonstration outside the Pakistani High Commission in London seeking global pressure on Pakistan for human rights violations in Pakistan Administered Kashmir and Gilgit.

The demonstrators demanded fundamental rights for Kashmiris in Pakistan and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). They said Pakistan had thrown an iron curtain across POK and Gilgit.

Slogans were also raised for Pakistan to leave the region.

Shabir Chaudhry, spokesperson of the Kashmir National Party, who participated in the demonstration, while speaking to the media, stated that the protest had been organised to raise the issue of human rights atrocities against Kashmiris in Pakistan and Gilgit.

Referring to the killing of Arif Shahid, leader of the All Parties National Alliance in Rawalpindi in 2013, Chaudhry said taht there was no doubt that Shahid had been killed by the Pakistani establishment simply because he had raised his voice for the basic rights of the people of Pakistan and Gilgit.

Chaudhry further said that it was odd that the Pakistani Government could refer to Burhan Wani, commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen as a martyr but people like Shahid, who never raised a gun against Pakistan, are labelled as terrorists.

Chaudhry said that Shahid must be declared a martyr for having spoken all his life for the rights of the marginalised in Pakistan.