Kashmiris across Europe reject Yasin Malik's farcical sentencing

The Kashmiri diaspora across Europe on Thursday rejected the sentencing of Hurriyet leader Yasin Malik, urging the international community to intervene in the matter to safeguard the rights of the locals facing brutal Indian occupation for decades.

The members of the community held protests in the UK, Norway, Italy and Germany, lashing out at Indian courts for falsely convicting Malik.

Fahim Kayani, who heads Tehreek-e-Kashmir UK, said in a statement that the Kashmiri diaspora had resolved to take up the matter with European nations to hold India accountable for this “travesty of justice".

"This is a recipe for genocide already underway in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK)," he added.

He added he had asked all TeK chapters across the UK to hold protests against the wrongful conviction after Friday prayer on May 27.

Also read: Indian court jails Yasin Malik for life

The demonstrations will be held to press India to release Kashmiri resistance leaders including Shabir Shah, Masarat Alam, Asiya Andrabi, Peer Saifullah, Dr Muhammad Qasim Faktoo and others.

“Kashmir was never part of India,” Kayani said, referring to various resolutions by the United Nations that saw IIOJK as “disputed” and its future to be decided by its people.

“It is India, which is denying this right of a free and fair plebiscite to Kashmiris, with its military might,” he also said.

He maintained that the “kangaroo courts had no jurisdiction, whatsoever, to decide about the future of the freedom-loving Kashmiris.”

The TeK president also thanked British lawmaker Muhammad Afzal Khan for raising the illegal jail term in the UK parliament.

“It is a moral and international responsibility of the UK government to ask India to release all Kashmiri resistance leaders as Kashmir is a disputed territory."

Also read: Yasin Malik’s conviction

While addressing the protesters outside the Indian embassy in Oslo, Shah Hussain, the TeK president Norway, said: "Our stance has once again been proven that Indian courts are part and parcel of the illegal Indian military regime in the occupied territory.

"These courts aid the illegal military occupation, thus, they have no credibility to decide these cases," he maintained.

Hussain urged the Kashmiri diaspora across the world to stand up for “saving the Kashmiri leader in danger.”

Addressing a separate public gathering, Mian Tayyib, the TeK secretary-general Europe, said: “We have seen no one prosecuted for the murder of Syed Ali Geelani and Ashraf Sehrai.”

“Now, under the guise of the so-called courts and justice system, India wants to kill another Kashmiri leader.”

Concluding, he said, "Kashmiris reject Indian courts and their justice system and we will never succumb nor be cowed down."