‘People are dying, we are not safe': Britons in Kashmir beg to leave
Khola Riaz, who lives in Luton, travelled last month to Kotli, a mountainous town in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, with her four-year-old son, Esa, to visit her unwell father. But within a week, her parents' hometown had become the centre of a military standoff between the two nuclear-armed states.
Several British families in Kotli, which straddles the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, have said they were forced into a lockdown as at least five civilians were killed in an intense night of artillery exchanges.
• India-Pakistan live: nations strike airbases and move closer to war
'The bombing
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
ANDREW PIERCE: Was Afzal Khan's visit to Cyprus a bid to save his seat as he faces battle against Corbyn's new party?
Not for nothing has Labour 's Afzal Khan been dubbed the 'Honourable Member for Islamabad'. Born in Pakistan, where he lived until he was 11, the bearded MP has become perhaps the Commons' most vocal cheerleader for his ancestral homeland. On Thursday, he was in his element, helping raise Pakistan's national flag at the country's consulate, found – where else? – in his Manchester Rusholme constituency, at an event to mark the anniversary of partition from India in 1947. The first Muslim Lord Mayor of Manchester, who speaks Urdu as a first language, Khan also finds time to chair the all-party parliamentary group on 'Britain-Pakistan trade and tourism' and was, until he was dramatically sacked on Friday night, a trade envoy to Turkey. He is, meanwhile, a former parliamentary chair for the Labour Muslim Network, an ex-assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain and vice-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims. Yet in the past week, this distinguished if perhaps narrowly focused politician became famous for all the wrong reasons – having triggered an ugly international spat by embarking on a bizarre all-expenses-paid trip to northern Cyprus. This Turkish-controlled territory is an international pariah, unrecognised by the British or any other government except Istanbul. In 1974, after an attempted coup by Greek Cypriots, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus, raping women, abusing children, displacing perhaps 160,000 people and slaughtering an estimated 4,000 Greek Cypriots. The United Nations, Great Britain and the international community have never accepted the rogue state of 'northern Cyprus', which amounts to about 36 per cent of the island. Predictably, then, Khan's squalid little jaunt has triggered outrage in Cyprus, which boasts two British military bases, and indeed beyond. The National Federation of Cypriots in the UK denounced the trip as a 'flagrant breach' of both international law and British policy. Khan even agreed to be photographed grinning alongside Turkish Cypriot 'leader' Ersin Tatar at the latter's 'official residence', while accepting an honorary doctorate. Further reports suggest they exchanged 'gifts'. Khan was in fact a guest of Tatar who had issued a 'formal invitation' – and who was no doubt delighted at the propaganda coup of having lured a senior British MP from the governing party to lend legitimacy to his Potemkin statelet. While there, Khan – who neither sought nor received permission from the Labour leadership for the visit, nor discussed it with the Foreign Office – also saw nothing wrong in attending a series of 'official meetings', according to reports. Khan did not respond to my requests for comment. So what was the 67-year-old thinking? He calculated that the only way he can survive as an MP is by courting the Muslim bloc vote in his constituency – who sympathise with their co-religionists on the island. Islam is the largest religion in Manchester Rusholme, amounting to some 37 per cent of the electorate, while in northern Cyprus, 97 per cent of locals are Sunni Muslims. Khan virtually admitted there might be votes in his trip when he said he had been encouraged to visit by his Turkish Cypriot friends in Manchester, adding: 'That is why I am happy to be here.' And no wonder, given his shaky majority. While many Labour MPs were re-elected with increased majorities at the last election, Khan's slipped to just over 8,000. I can disclose he is now facing a major challenge from Jeremy Corbyn's nascent ultra-Left-wing, pro-Gaza political party, co- led by Zarah Sultana MP (who is herself of Pakistani Muslim ancestry). Already massing under the banner of the so-far-unnamed outfit – nicknamed 'Jezbollah' – are four 'independent' Muslim MPs who captured their seats from Labour at the last election. Health Secretary Wes Streeting, seen as a future Labour leader, squeaked home in Ilford North by just 528 votes, narrowly beating a 24-year-old whose campaign was endorsed by the increasingly powerful Muslim Vote pressure group. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood saw her majority in Birmingham slashed from 28,500 to 3,400. Corbyn and his chums, then, represent a serious threat to the Labour order. And on Friday night, a source close to Corbyn told me that Manchester Rusholme is top of their hit list. 'Afzal Khan is a long-time supporter of Starmer's regime,' said the source. 'We will flood Khan's constituency with supporters and resources. 'We intend to win it big. Afzal Khan may think he can curry favour with the Muslims in his constituency by embracing northern Cyprus – but they will see straight through it.' Khan has enraged the pro-Gaza lobby for having abstained in a Commons vote proscribing the pressure group Palestine Action. Another black mark against him, as they see it, was his abstention on a 2023 vote to make it illegal for councils to boycott Israeli goods. My Corbynista source adds: 'His actions speak louder than his freebie to northern Cyprus.' Khan left school without any qualifications before working as a bus driver and ultimately training as a solicitor. In 2014, as an MEP, he thought it appropriate to tweet: 'The Israeli government are acting like Nazi's [sic] in Gaza.' After he was selected as a Labour parliamentary candidate, he claimed: 'I was new to Twitter and made a mistake, which I apologised for.' But this was untrue: he had sent the tweet four years after he first started using Twitter. Khan apologised again the following year after sharing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about an 'Israel-British- Swiss-Rothschilds crime syndicate'. He later said he was 'mortified'. He apologised yet again two years ago after posing in front of a stall accusing Israel of 'apartheid', just two days after Hamas's October 7 attacks. On Friday night, a senior Labour figure told me: 'Khan said it was a personal visit. But he was the official trade envoy for the UK visiting a territory no other country recognises – so it's not a personal visit.
The Independent
3 days ago
- The Independent
Former Afghan interpreter exposed in huge MoD data breach has UK relocation revoked
A former Afghan interpreter exposed in a catastrophic Ministry of Defence (MoD) data breach has had his offer of relocation to the UK revoked – despite waiting for two years in Pakistan to be brought to Britain. The former patrol interpreter is believed to be one of several families who had been accepted for sanctuary in the UK by the MoD due to their service alongside British troops, but who have now had their applications rebuffed by the Home Office. He has been detained by Pakistan police who entered the UK-run hotel he was staying in on Wednesday and brought him to a deportation camp, his lawyer said. His details were leaked in a MoD breach that exposed the details of thousands of Afghans who said they were in danger from the Taliban because of their links to UK forces and wanted to escape to Britain. The man and his family have now been given 14 days to leave the hotel they have been staying in. They are without Pakistan visas, money, or anywhere else to go. Rafi Hottak, a former interpreter for the British Army who now campaigns for Afghans left behind, said the reversal decision was 'morally bankrupt'. Mr Hottak said: 'There is a real risk of deportation to these people. I think it is morally bankrupt for the UK government to do this. They have not been able to go out, their wives and children are suffering, and suddenly you throw a bomb shell on them. Whatever the reason is they need to be given a clear answer to why their case is rejected'. Erin Alcock, the lawyer for the former Afghan interpreter, filed an urgent application to the High Court in the UK on Thursday, asking for the family's support to be continued long enough to allow them to appeal the sudden decision. Ms Alcock, senior associate at law firm Leigh Day, said: 'It is a horrifying development, following a sudden and unexplained visa refusal that our client is seeking to have reviewed in the Special Immigration Appeals Commission. We are working urgently to challenge the decision to remove support from our client's family in the meantime'. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said that Afghans eligible to come to the UK must pass security and entry checks before relocation. The revelation comes as another family also being housed in a Pakistan hotel awaiting relocation to the UK was detained by police and readied for deportation to Afghanistan, according to the son of a former Afghan special forces commando. The son, who has been waiting to be brought to the UK for nearly 10 months, told The Independent: 'The British government knows that as soon as we fall into the hands of the Taliban, we will all be killed.' He said that 13 members of this family, including his father, have been taken to the same deportation camp by the police. His father, who also had his details exposed in the MoD leak, served alongside UK special forces and has been found eligible for sanctuary in the UK, along with his family members. His desperate son, who said he managed to escape arrest, told The Independent: 'We are even willing for only our children and wives to be relocated. If we are sent back to Afghanistan and killed, so be it – but why should the children of our family and our wives have to face such punishment? At least in this way, we would know that our children and wives are safe and will survive'. He added: 'It is very disheartening – our children should be enjoying their childhood games at the age of four, not suffering from PTSD because of circumstances that have been unfortunately forced upon us'. A MoD spokesperson said that the UK government was only able to confirm if families had passed or failed their visa checks once they were in a third country. They said: 'We are honouring our commitments to all eligible people who pass their relevant checks for relocation. 'As the public would rightly expect, anyone coming to the UK must pass strict security and entry checks before being able to relocate to the UK. In some cases, people do not pass these checks. 'All letters of eligibility clearly say that relocation is conditional for passing these checks.'
Sky News
3 days ago
- Sky News
India 'will not tolerate' nuclear blackmail, says prime minister Narendra Modi in warning to Pakistan on Independence Day
India's Prime Minister has warned Pakistan it will not succumb to, or tolerate, nuclear blackmail. In Narendra Modi's 12th consecutive speech from the ramparts of Delhi's iconic Red Fort, he addressed the nation celebrating its 79th Independence Day from colonial Britain. He laid emphasis on 'Atmanirbhar', or self-reliance, in defending India by increasing and developing a more powerful weapons system for security. Mr Modi said: "India has decided, we will not tolerate nuclear blackmail. We have established a new normal. Now we will not distinguish between terrorists and those who nurture and support terrorists. Both are enemies of humanity" This comes on the back of the conflict in May after the killing of 26 people by terrorists in Pahalgam, Kashmir. In retaliation, India launched attacks on terrorist infrastructure across the border. Pakistan retaliated, which quickly escalated into both countries launching a series of missiles, armed drones and heavy gunfire on each other. After four days of fighting, a ceasefire was agreed to between the two nuclear-armed neighbours that have fought wars and many skirmishes over decades. US President Donald Trump intervened saying: "I know the leaders of Pakistan and India. I know [them] very well. And they're in the midst of a trade deal, and yet they're talking about nuclear weapons... this is crazy. "I'm not doing a trade deal with you if you're going to have war, and that's a war that spreads to other countries, you'll get nuclear dust. When they start using nuclear weapons, that stuff blows all over the place and really bad things happen." 2:58 Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif immediately thanked the American president for the ceasefire and bringing about peace and stability in the region, also recommending him for the Nobel Peace Prize as a genuine peacemaker and his commitment to conflict resolution. Mr Modi's government is yet to acknowledge President Trump's intervention and maintains that the Pakistani military initiated the ceasefire process and India agreed to halt military action. 5:52 In parliament, India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said: "There was no leader... nobody in the world that asked India to stop its operations. This is something the prime minister also said. There was no linkage of trade in any of these conversations and there was no talk between the prime minister and President Trump." Mr Modi's speech is an audit of the year gone by and his future plans of strengthening the economy and of self-reliance in the face of very high tariffs imposed by President Trump for buying discounted Russian oil. He spoke of bringing in structural reforms, welfare schemes for farmers, women's empowerment, employment, technology, clean energy and the green industry, but also raised concerns about rising obesity levels. India has the fourth largest economy in the world and is expected to be the third largest before Mr Modi's current term ends in 2029. Although when it comes to GDP per capita income, which serves as an indicator of individual prosperity, India is ranked 144 out of 196 countries. The big economy illusion of GDP size has little to do with the well-being and fortune of its people, something the government refuses to acknowledge. In its 2024 report, Paris-based World Inequality Lab said the inequality in India now is worse than under British rule. The research stated that 1% of the wealthiest Indians hold 40% of its wealth and enjoy a quarter of the nation's income. Comparing the 'British Raj' to the 'Billionaire Raj', the study said there are now 271 billionaires in the country and 94 new ones were added the previous year. The rise of top-end inequality in India has been particularly pronounced in terms of wealth concentration in the Modi years between 2014-15 and 2022-23. 3:50 With over 1.46 billion people, India is the most populous country, making up 17.8% of the global population. More than half the country is under 30, and it has one of the lowest old-age dependency ratios, enabling productivity, higher savings and investment. A key challenge for the government is to match employment with its growing young population. It's even more critical as artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in production and services, eating into jobs. Last week, President Trump levied an additional 25% tariff on India for buying Russian oil, taking the total tariff level to over 50% and hitting Indian manufacturing and trade. "I don't care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together," the president said. Since the Ukraine war, India has been buying discounted Russian crude and its imports have risen from 3% in 2021 to about 35% to 40% in 2024. Defending its stance, India says it does so for its energy security and to protect millions of its citizens from rising costs. It's a national day of celebration with patriotic fervour all around, but also a grim reminder of the tragedy of partition - the trauma of which still haunts its people.
