Pakistanis in Britain protest against state-sponsored Shia genocide on the arrival of PM Gilani


Thursday, 10 May 2012: Hundreds of Pakistanis in the UK protested against Shia genocide in Pakistan at 10 Downing Street, London. The protest was organized by the Majlis-e-Ulama Shia Europe (Shia Scholar Council of Europe).

The participants protested against the ongoing genocide of Shia Muslims across various parts of Pakistan right from Parachinar to Karachi and from Quetta to Gilgit Baltistan. They expressed their anger at the enabling of further Shia genocide by Pakistan army through the creation of the so called “Defence of Pakistan Council” comprising the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (Jamaat-ud-Dawa).

A petition was delivered for the Pakistani Prime Minister who was in 10 Downing Street at the time of protest.

The protest was generally ignored by Pakistan’s right wing journalists as well as pseudo-liberal journalists most of whom remain loyal to Pakistan’s military establishment.

According to daily The News:

An unprecedented level of protests met Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani as he arrived at 10 Downing Street to hold talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron Thursday.

The protestors from Majlis-e-Ulema Shia Europe began gathering outside the residence of the British prime minister an hour before Prime Minister Gilaniís arrival.

Pakistan Peopleís Party (PPP) activists had also gathered outside Number 10 to greet Prime Minister Gilani and to protest the judicial decision convicting him for contempt of court, but it was clear from the start that anti-Shia genocide protesters greatly outnumbered the pro-PPP activists.

The scale of the protests was so extreme that even Prime Minister Cameron asked the Pakistani premier if he felt safe walking around in London knowing that some activists were staging vociferous protests against him. While tens of thousands of protesters marched outside Downing Street against David Cameronís increasingly unpopular government and the austerity cuts as the two premiers met, on his way to a luncheon at the Savoy Hotel, Cameron joked with Prime Minister Gilani by asking him if the latter felt comfortable taking a short stroll to the venue amidst the protests.

On a lighter note, Prime Minister Gilani told Pakistanis present at the gathering, ìWhen we were coming to launch Conservative Friends of Pakistan in the same car, David Cameron asked me if I would like to take a walk knowing that PML-N and other protesters are out there.

Meanwhile, bitter and angry Shia protesters alleged that the PPP-led government had failed to protect the Shia community in Pakistan and that the leaders had failed to prosecute even a single terrorist involved in sectarian killings.

Syed Ali Raza, the leader of the protesters told The News: “We are saddened by this visit because the prime minister has failed to account the genocide of thousands of innocent people. Therefore we are demanding that Prime Minister Gilani return immediately back to Pakistan to share in the sadness of weeping widows, orphaned children and mothers who have lost their support of life. We want to make it clear to the prime minister that we will not tolerate the criminal negligence of [the] Pakistani government on the genocide of the Shia people. We will use every platform to raise our voice against the oppression on Shias in Pakistan.”

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