Hundreds of members of the Kashmiri diaspora staged a protest outside the Pakistani High Commission in London after reports of a deadly security crackdown in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, PoK.
The demonstrations came a day after Pakistani security forces staged a crackdown on protesters from a banned group, JAAC.
The large-scale protests have triggered a security response and a communications blackout in the region.
The protesters in London chanted anti-government slogans and held banners demanding fundamental human rights. Demonstrations in London, Bradford, Birmingham and Manchester condemned the “brutal military suppression” of the peaceful civil rights movement.
On Monday, the Pakistani security forces clashed with members of the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee JAAC in the town of Rawalkot.
The groups said that they campaigned against the soaring inflation and food shortages. Inflated electricity prices.
The situation escalated when the Pakistani government banned the group under anti-terrorism laws and deployed heavy paramilitary units, including the Pakistani Rangers and Punjab Police.
Several people were left dead, and around 70 were injured.
A British parliamentary group had also raised concern over reports of the communication disruptions, arrests and tension in PoK.
Bradford East MP Imran Hussain, the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Kashmir, cited recent reports from the region of a “communications blackout, as part of a broader lockdown, alongside escalating tensions, and restrictions affecting the ability of people in the region to communicate with the outside world,” in a letter to the UK Foreign Office.
The letter, which was signed by 30 MPs, urged te Birtish governemnt to “engage proactively and use all appropriate diplomatic channels to encourage de-escalation and a peaceful resolution” in the region.
