The United Kingdom has categorically refused India’s request to cancel an event highlighting human rights violations in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) scheduled to be held at the British Parliament on February 4, India Today reported on Friday.
Indian Ministry of External Affairs Spokes person Raveesh Kumar said at a weekly briefing that India had taken up the matter with the United Kingdom and ‘expected’ the British government to address India’s concerns. “We have taken it up with the UK very strongly. We hope that they will understand our objections to the proposed conference and take appropriate action,” he said.
However, thrashing the hopes of the Indian government, the British government asserted that it will not interfere in the matter. “The United Kingdom Members of the Parliament are independent of government,” the British High Commission in New Delhi said. “It is for the individual members to decide who they meet and for what purpose,” it added.
The meeting being organised at the House of Commons of the ‘All Party Parliamentary Group on Pakistan’ would include Conservative and Labour Party MPs. “This would be followed by an exhibition in London to highlight the centrality of Jammu and Kashmir dispute and the grave human rights violations against the Kashmiri people, by India, which are being widely condemned and need to be immediately stopped,” read a statement by Pakistan’s Foreign Office.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is likely to be in London for the events. “We understand that Mr Qureshi is travelling to London to attend a number of private events. There are no plans for meetings with the UK government during this visit,” the BHC said.
The UK government, for now, is trying to keep out of a diplomatic war between Pakistan and India that has found its way to London. “The UK’s longstanding position is that it is for India and Pakistan to find a lasting political resolution to the situation in Kashmir, taking into account the Kashmiri people’s wishes,” the BHC statement said.
Published in Daily Times, February 2nd 2019.
