Bengaluru: In the aftermath of the horrific London bridge terror attack last Friday by a UK citizen with Pakistani-Kashmiri antecendents that claimed the lives of two people, a senior member of the Labour Party said that his party is in danger of being hijacked by a Kashmiri terror group, which aimed to destabilize India.
UK’s former Mayor of Lambeth, Indian origin Dr. Neeraj Patil has warned the Labour Party of the terrorist group, the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front’s long term plans to control the party – and the country - in the run up to the December 12 general elections in the UK.
The JKLF, which is now based in J&K, but has its roots in Birmingham and Manchester, is “infiltrating the Labour Party,” claimed the Labour leader, who is vehemently opposed to the proposed inclusion of the JKLF’s demand for a plebiscite in the Labour Party’s manifesto.
The JKLF - which began as a pressure group in the UK by Kashmiri migrants from Mirpur in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and was headed by Amanullah Khan and terrorists Maulana Masood Azhar and Maqbool Butt - shot into the spotlight when it kidnapped Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in 1984 from his home in Birmingham, and murdered him when the Indian government refused to free Butt from prison, in exchange for Mhatre’s freedom. Headed now by Yasin Malik, who was put behind bars after the Modi government’s abrogation of Article 370 in August this year, it was behind the systematic hounding of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits who fled the Valley in 1990.
Mr Patil, in a letter to the Labour Party general secretary Jennie Formby, warned his party against endorsing the JKLF which has been behind a string of terror attacks in J&K through the years since the Pandit mass exodus.
"This organization has a long track record of terror offenses in India and is designated as a terrorist organization there," wrote Dr. Patil as the Labour Party’s official website began displaying a letter of endorsement by the JKLF. Dr. Patil alleges the letter signed by the president of the JKLF’s UK chapter Syed Tahseen Gilani, was being run purely to bring in votes in the Walsall-Birmingham area.
