Hundreds of noisy protesters greeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he arrived in London to participate in Commonwealth Summit.
The demonstrators included Muslims and Sikhs, who called for end to religious persecution, and human rights activists, who called for end to violence against women.
Kashmiris held aloft flags, while others displayed posters depicting an eight-year-old Muslim girl, who was raped and murdered recently in a brutal attack blamed on Hindu men. In a crime that shocked the world, a Muslim girl in the northern state of Occupied Kashmir was kidnapped, drugged and held for several days while she was raped repeatedly and then murdered.
In the other case, a state lawmaker from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party stands accused of raping a teenager. No action was taken against the politician until the girl threatened to set herself on fire earlier this month. Sexual violence against women is a highly charged political issue in India, where protests regularly erupt about entrenched violence against women and the failure to protect them. Protesters were on the view that what is happening in Modi’s regime is unacceptable as minorities are being killed and it seems government is encouraging this.
Modi, a Hindu nationalist, is a divisive figure in India and his second trip to Britain as prime minister represents a remarkable turnaround for a man who was once banned from the UK over his alleged role, as chief minister of Gujarat, in riots that killed about 1,000 people in 2002.
Kashmiris also held anti-India demonstration in London to expose Indian brutality in occupied Kashmir, protesters were of the view that India is committing heinous crimes in the occupied valley and using all tactics to suppress the indigenous Liberation movement of Kashmiri people. People in held Kashmir are restricted and forced to stop their demonstrations against the use of force and killings by the authorities. But protesters in huge numbers in London proved that they will keep highlighting to the world about heinous state terrorism of India.
It is high time that India must realize that continued suppression of freedom movement by using all dirty tactics of using brutality would not deter resolve of Kashmiris, and best way forward is to engage in constructive talks with India and Kashmiris for a durable and amicable resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
