LONDON: A seminar was held in the House of Commons here to mark the death anniversary of Maqbool Bhat and Afzal Guru.
Speakers paid rich tribute to the life and struggle of the Kashmiri leader Maqbool Bhat and called it an inhuman act to keep mortal remains imprisoned after his hanging. A joint letter signed by 60 members of parliament was sent to the President of India asking him to authorize the release of Kashmiri leader’s remains to be taken to Kashmir for Islamic burial.
Speaking at the seminar, the leader of the Respect Party, George Galloway MP, the most outspoken critic of Israeli atrocities said that he was astounded to hear people have been buried in secret. “Israel has done many bad things but even Israel does not keep dead bodies imprisoned”.
Other members of Parliament who spoke at the seminar, including Yasmin Qureshi MP and John Hemming MP, said that they fully backed the campaign to have the mortal remains of two Kashmiris released from Tihar Jail to be buried in Kashmir. They said that they did not understand why Indian government had taken this decision and what they feared from allowing the Kashmiri leader to be buried in Kashmir.
The host of the seminar, Raja Najabat Hussain of the Kashmir Self-determination Movement echoed their sentiments.
A human rights campaigner and lecturer of International Politics at the University of Westminister, Dr Debyesh Anand, analysed in detail Maqbool Bhat’s lifelong struggle saying India hanged him to silence his dream for independence.
He said that Kashmiri nation and Diaspora needs to be clear about where they want to take this movement and how they are going to achieve their goal.
JKLF president in UK , Azmat Khan, highlighting Maqbool Bhats struggle said that Maqbool was let down by his friends such as Farooq Abdullah and Muzafar Baig.
He said Maqbool Bat, who was charged as a Indian agent by Pakistan and ironically India hanged him for being ‘enemy agent’, was a visionary leader who had no opportunity to defend his case in courts but knew that his hanging would wake up his nation.
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