LONDON - British Member of Parliament (MP) Naz Shah has strongly opposed granting the Order of Sheikh Zayed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is remembered as the butcher of Gujerat and now oppressor of the people of occupied Kashmir.

In a letter to Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheik Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan, British Kashmiri MP asked the crown prince to reconsider the decision of granting prestigious award of UAE to Modi. She wrote in the letter: “I write to you not only as a British Parliamentarian  representing a constituency home to thousands of British Kashmiris, but also as a British Kashmiri, expressing my complete dismay towards the decision made by your government to award Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Order of Zayed, your kingdom’s highest civilian award.”

Naz further said that PM Modi had deprived the state of Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy by forcibly revoking articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian constitution.

Consequently, she said, 38,000 more paramilitary soldiers had been added to the already 700,000 strong force on his orders, making occupied Kashmir the most militarized region in the world.

British MP further wrote that there had been a complete lockdown in the held valley for more than 15 days, with internet and other sources of communications completely shut.

She said that political leaders had been put under house arrest, while the protestors were pelted with pellet guns, and had to confront curfews when they came out on roads.

The British MP told the crown prince of Abu Dhabi that Secretary of All India Progressive Women’s Association Kavita Krishnan, after completing her five-day fact-finding mission to the occupied Kashmir, had said the territory was under military siege, and had stated that “Frankly ,it looked like occupied Iraq or occupied Palestine.”

“Furthermore, due to the severity of the current situation ,the predicament of the Kashmiri people has been raised at the United Nations Security Council for the first time in decades,” she remarked.

Naz said that moreover, leading human rights activists, such as Kumi Naidoo, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, had also commented on the issue.

Ahead of the UN Security Council meeting, Naidoo had stated, “The action of the Indian government has thrown ordinary people’s lives into turmoil, subjecting them to unnecessary pain and distress.”

Naz Shah said that above all atrocities were now being perpetrated on the Kashmiris on the orders of PM Modi She said: “It saddened me greatly, to see the news that Modi, once recognised as the butcher of Gujerat, is being offered the UAE’s highest civilian honour, a title in the name of your father Sheikh Zayed.”

Sheikh Zayed, she said was a man of great honour, a figure who is remembered in the annals of history as decent, charitable person. May God have mercy upon his soul.”

“To grant such a recognition to an individual who is oppressing the people in occupied Kashmir in the name of Sheikh Zayed, not only questions the values of this previously prestigious title, misrepresents his legacy but also forces the world to debate the nature of your moral conscious,” she observed.

“I ask you to question this decision and reconsider giving such an award, not only because the majority of the Kashmiris share the same faith as you, but because we have a duty as a human being to stand up against the disregard for human rights and evil,” she wrote. Naz is a member of British Parliament for Bradford West and a shadow minister for women and equalities.