UK Labour Party leader slammed for controversial letter on Kashmir issue

The new leader of the UK’s Labour Party has shifted its stance on the Kashmir dispute, insisting it’s a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan after meeting with an Indian lobby group.

“We must not allow issues of the sub-continent to divide communities here,” Keir Starmer said on Thursday after a meeting with the executive team of the Labour Friends of India (LFIN).

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“Any constitutional issues in India are a matter for the Indian Parliament, and Kashmir is a bilateral issue for India and Pakistan to resolve peacefully,” he added.

Starmer, newly elected to the leadership position, intends to distance himself from his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, who was criticised by sections of the UK’s Indian community for putting forward an emergency motion saying there was a “major humanitarian crisis taking place in Kashmir”.

Corbyn’s stance on Kashmir was clear in his August 2019 tweet: “The situation in Kashmir is deeply disturbing. Human rights abuses taking place are unacceptable. The rights of the Kashmiri people must be respected and UN resolutions implemented.”

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Speaking exclusively to ARY News, permanent member of House of Lords, Lord Nazir Ahmed expressed great dismay at the development and said that Starmer’s letter is nowhere near the facts on ground.

Ahmed said that the Kashmir issue was infact not an internal issued of India rather a humanatarian issue which has multiple united nations resolutions on the matter.

Ahmed also said that he will keep on raising and representing the plight of innocent Kashmiris in the world till the resolutions of UN are taken in to affect and the matter resolved according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

Member Labour Party from Leeds, Richard Bergen also opposed the development saying that as a party candidate he is upholding the previous legislations on the atrocities of Kashmir at the hands of India and would continue to raise his voice for the people of Kashmir till they get respite.

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Former member European Parliament, Sajjad Haider Karim also expressed great sadness over the development saying that Starmer has gone against Labor Party’s very own resolution which was tendered by Corbyn in the past.

Haider said that the Kashmir issue was in no way a constitutional matter for India but rather a glaring humanitarian crisis which needed resolution according to the UN resolutions on the matter.