Clashes erupted outside the Indian High Commission in London on Friday evening when demonstrators, led by Pakistani-origin British MP Lord Nazir Ahmed, staged protests calling for the independence of Kashmir and Khalistan. The protestors planned the “black day” demonstration to coincide with India’s Republic Day.
Police had to intervene after scuffles broke out between them and some pro-India counter-protestors, ANI reported.
Billboard vans with messages such as “India Leave Kashmir: Free Kashmir”, “Khalistan Zindabad” and “70 Years of Indian Brutality” were seen in London during the demonstrations.
“Not only us [residents of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir], but Khalistanis, and our brothers from Nagaland and Manipur, and minorities, who are oppressed in India, will also join us in the protest,” Ahmed, who organised the protest, had said on Thursday.
“It will be a peaceful demonstration by a small gathering because we cannot have very large numbers outside the High Commission,” he had said. Ahmed, one of the first British Muslim members of the House of Lords, was born in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
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