Pakistanis scuffle with PoK activists during protest in UK

Sep 22, 2020

Bradford, The United Kingdom, Sep 22 (ANI): The arrest of activist and journalist, Tanveer Ahmad has sparked outrage across the Pakistan occupied region and a number of demonstrations are being carried out demanding his release. Exiled PoK leaders and activists are also holding demonstrations across Europe against this police high handedness that has become a regular phenomenon in the region. But all this doesn’t seem to go well with Pakistani authorities who recently tried to foil the protest that was organised by the PoK activists outside the Consulate of Pakistan at Bradford in the United Kingdom with due permission. The activists were protesting in a peaceful manner against the illegal detention of Tanveer Ahmad when a few Pakistani citizens started intimidating them by holding a counter-protest. Blaming Pakistan High Commission in London for all this chaos, activists have said that they will not be jolted by this nefarious act of Pakistan and will further intensify their protest. Pakistan’s insecurity against Kashmiri activists—both political and social---has manifested in its extrajudicial operations over the years. It has pre-emptively targeted and suppressed the voices demanding rights and freedom in its illegally occupied territories of PoK and Gilgit Baltistan. Even the newspapers in these regions have been banned for writing something that doesn’t suit the interests of Pakistan. In 2017, it ordered the shutdown of Mujadala, the largest circulated Urdu daily of Rawlakot in PoK as it carried a survey-report that 73% of the people living in the region want Independence from Pakistan. This survey was also conducted by Tanveer Ahmad, who had to face a number of problems back then for showing truth to Pakistani authorities. This time, Tanveer was on a hunger strike for days and had demanded local authorities to remove Pakistani flags from a public place in PoK. Failing in which, he himself removed the flags. Enraged with his act, Pakistani security forces not just dragged him before coercing into a law enforcement vehicle but also brutally tortured him. Such incidents have become an everyday event in PoK ever since it has been illegally occupied by Pakistan. Anyone who dares to raise his voice against the Pakistani discrimination and human rights violation in the region is subjected to violence, imprisonment, exile or even death in some cases.