Pro-Pak protest march on Kashmir in UK fizzles out

London: A protest march by a UK-based pro-Pakistan group on the Kashmir issue in the heart of London on Sunday fizzled out as barely a few hundred protesters gathered to wave placards and flags.

The so-called 'Million March' from Trafalgar Square to Downing Street descended into chaos as Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari stepped on to the makeshift stage to speak.

The crowd began booing and throwing empty plastic bottles and refused to let him speak.

"This march was to be about Kashmir and for the welfare of Kashmiris. Bilawal has no business being here," said a group of angry protesters who had travelled from Derby in the East Midlands region of England.

The march was?led by Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry, referred to as a former prime minister of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), and was supported by Mirpuri-origin British parliamentarian Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham.

While the group had claimed overwhelming support from various communities for the march, others had dismissed it as against the "national interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir".

A counter-protest held by a rival group yesterday ended with memorandums submitted for the prime ministers of India and Pakistan at their high commissions here.

The memorandums urged both India and Pakistan to "respect the fundamental human rights of all citizens of Jammu and Kashmir".