India registers protest against Burhan Wani rally in UK

India has protested to the UK over a planned rally to mark "Burhan Wani Day" in Birmingham on Saturday, questioning how the British government can allow the "glorification of terrorists" on its soil. The Indian High Commission in London wrote to the UK Foreign Office to register its protest.

The rally is planned by UK-based Kashmiri groups to mark the first death anniversary of the commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen militant outfit killed in a gun battle with Indian armed forces in the Kashmir Valley on July 8 last year.

India's deputy high commissioner, Dinesh Patnaik, sent a "note verbale" on Monday to the Foreign Office including details of Wani's crimes and propagation of violence in the Valley.

"A rally on Kashmir is a different matter but to glorify and eulogise a terrorist is unacceptable. The UK itself has suffered at the hands of terrorism in the



last few months and lives have been overturned as a result. How can law and order allow such a glorification of terrorists and propagation of violence," wrote Patnaik.

The senior diplomat also questioned if the UK government would allow the same UK-based protest groups, which have their origins in Pakistan, to organise a rally in favour of Pakistani-origin Khuram Butt and other terrorists involved in the attack on London Bridge last month which claimed eight lives.

"If the same people celebrating Wani were to plan a similar glorification of Khuram Butt and the other London Bridge terrorists, would this country's law and order allow that to go ahead as well," he questioned, adding that the joint statement issued following British Prime Minister Theresa May's visit to India in November 2016 had categorically stated joint action against all forms of terrorism.