- May 9, 2025
- Posted by: kevbha
- Categories: BJP, Modi, Narendra Modi, News
SAY NO TO WAR BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN! WE STAND
WITH ALL THOSE IN THE REGION DEMANDING DE-ESCALATION, DIPLOMACY, AND
PEACE, NOT MORE DEATH & DESTRUCTION. WE STAND WITH THE PEOPLE OF
KASHMIR!
EMERGENCY PEACE DEMONSTRATION, SATURDAY 10 MAY, 3PM, PARLIAMENT
SQUARE, LONDON
Once again, the people of Kashmir, on both sides of the border, are bearing the brunt of
India/Pakistan hostilities, with civilian deaths including children, and destruction of homes
and places of worship, adding to the suffering of Kashmiris who have faced decades long
repression of their struggles for self-determination.
Rather than identifying those responsible for the Pahalgam attack, taking accountability for
its own extensive lapses in security which made such an attack in the most militarised zone
in the world possible, or answering the many questions being asked including by the victims’
families, India launched what it has named Operation Sindoor against Pakistan in the early
hours of May 7.
While this was stated by the Government of India and Indian Armed Forces to be a
‘calibrated’ attack on ‘terror-training camps’, civilians have been killed in Punjab Province,
and in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. India has attacked Pakistani cities in Punjab using
Israeli-made Elbit drones manufactured in in the UK in Staffordshire, and Indian Rafale
fighter planes have been shot down in Pakistani airspace. India has also suspended the
crucial Indus water treaty with Pakistan which could severely affect water flow to Pakistan.
Pakistan has launched retaliatory cross-border shelling targeting Indian-controlled Jammu
and Kashmir, which has also killed civilians including children.
With both India and Pakistan being nuclear-armed powers, it is all the more essential that
immediate moves are taken to de-escalate the tensions and avoid yet another war between
India and Pakistan, in which only the people of India, Pakistan and Kashmir will suffer.
The Modi regime is clearly seeking to bolster its domestic popularity ahead of elections in
various states by whipping up a climate of hyper-nationalist warmongering. We should
remember the weaponization of the Pulwama attack before the 2019 general elections. In
the wake of Pahalgam, the Hindu supremacist groups associated with the government
started a campaign of persecution and violence on Kashmiris and Muslims in India. The
Indian government is also seeking to divert attention away from the horrific violence it is
unleashing on the Adivasi communities of Bastar in Chhattisgarh as it grabs their ancestral
land for mining corporates.
The name Operation Sindoor is claimed to be invoking ‘justice’ for the women who have lost
their husbands in the terror attack in Pahalgam. But justice for the victim families means
respecting their voices, their call for maintaining peace and harmony, and their concerns
about the multiple lapses and anomalies that enabled the heinous attack. Instead, the
Hindutva troll army and influential political voices linked to the regime have engaged in hate-
mongering against courageous women like Himanshi Narwal and Shaila Negi who have
spoken out against targeting of Muslims and Kashmiris. In fact, the name Operation Sindoor
intentionally invokes Brahminical Hindu patriarchy: as an activist from the All-India
Progressive Women’s Association comments: “Did you even hesitate before weaponising
women’s bodies to justify war? Did you pause before reviving one of the oldest jingoistic
tropes—reinforcing sindoor a symbol of patriarchal control, to sensualise, glorify, and
normalise violence and destruction? Of course you didn’t. Because it serves your agenda: to
sustain war, trigger jingoism, deflect accountability, and silence dissent. Just like you’ve done
before—circulating animated images of mourning women to stoke hate. And the moment
one of them speaks for peace, stands against hate, you try to silence her. Because her voice
threatens your violence…. Bombing without exhausting diplomatic options is not justice.
Using women’s grief is not justice. War, destruction and bloodshed are not justice”.
The heightened tensions are also being used to intensify the attacks on any form of dissent
or even the asking of questions, by labelling it ‘anti-national’. This was initially seen in the
fabricated charges against Bhojpuri folk singer Neha Singh Rathore, Lucknow University
professor and political satirist Madri Kakoti (Dr Medusa) political satirist Shamita Yadav (The
Ranting Gola), and digital news channel 4PM network. All these spurious charges must be
dropped. In the last two days, we have seen the Indian Government blocking prominent
independent news outlets like The Wire and Maktoob Media, The Kashmiriyat and Free
Press Kashmir, and the targeting of leading journalists like Anuradha Bhasin, even as the
mainstream pro-Modi media keeps up a shameless barrage of fake news and blatant lies.
Meanwhile in Pakistan, under the pretext of national security, the Supreme Court has
exploited the atmosphere of confusion and anxiety, to reinstate the Pakistan Army Act which
allows for the trials of civilians in military courts. State repression of the people of
Balochistan and their desire for self-determination continues to intensify.
In the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been more focused on gloating over the recent
trade deal with India, only belatedly adding to global calls for de-escalation, in a comment
which was quickly undermined by Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds’ statement that
Britain should not be ‘squeamish’ in exporting arms to India. With India increasingly linked to
Israel and sharing arms production, resources, and strategies, it is no surprise that Israel has
wholeheartedly supported India’s attack on Pakistan.
The emergency peace demonstration called for Saturday May 10 in Parliament Square in
Central London seeks to bring together and amplify the voices of all those in the South Asian
diaspora who are saying no to war between India and Pakistan. We are also standing
together in our determination to thwart further attempts to divide our communities here in
Britain. In particular, the Hindu supremacist forces aligned with the Modi regime are active in
the diaspora and have already stirred up hate and conflict in Leicester in 2022 and have a
close relationship with the racist and Islamophobic far-right who were the perpetrators of last
year’s riots across Britain – we must resist and counter the hatemongering of all such forces
and stand for peace and unity as the only way forward.
We demand:
• An immediate end to all military attacks between India and Pakistan
• Indian and Pakistani governments must de-escalate tensions and start immediate
peace talks
• A full reinstatement of the Indus Water Treaty
South Asia Solidarity Group, 10 May 2025
Contact: southasiasolidaritygroup (@) gmail.com; South Asia Solidarity Group (Facebook)
@SAsiaSolidarity (X/Twitter) @southasiasolidaritygroup (Instagram)
The following organisations are supporting the emergency peace demonstration:
South Asia Solidarity Group; South Asia Justice Campaign; Strive UK; UK Indian Muslim
Council; Hindus for Human Rights UK; Unau Welfare International; Nijjor Manush; India
Labour Solidarity; InSAF India; Million Women Rise; Apna Haq; Southasia Peace Action
Network (SAPAN)
