Representatives of the Pakistani community in Australia have raised concerns over demonstrations by Indian-Australians in protest of the attack last week that killed 44 Indian security personnel in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Dr Zarrin S Siddiqqui, from Pakistanis in Australia Inc, has written to the police forces of Western Australia, New South Wales and the Australian Federal Police, expressing concerns that slogans of “death to Pakistan” raised during a protest in Sydney could jeopardise harmony in the Australian community.
“It’s very disappointing that slogans of ‘Pakistan murdabad’ [death to Pakistan] that are totally unwarranted, were raised on Australian soil. We have asked the police authorities to ensure that this is not repeated in the future as this could disturb peace and harmony in communities living peacefully here,” Dr Siddiqqi told SBS Punjabi.
“We have engaged with the Indian community in the past and feel the pain of the families of the soldiers who died in the Pulwama attack. But after the sloganeering incident, the Pakistani community is asking us to distance ourselves [from the Indian community],” she added.
Ms Siddiqqui alleged that anti-Pakistani messages were being spread on social media and questioned why the protests that she said had been planned in advance were not stopped by authorities.
However, representatives of the Indian organisations that organised the protest demonstration last Sunday in central Sydney said it was some ‘angry’ protesters who raised the ‘death to Pakistan’ slogans and it was not planned.
“There were about 200 people from 27 different organisations and when there’s a crowd you can’t control what they say,” one of the protest organisers said.
“The slogans were not planned, none of the placards had those slogans. In fact, the protest was against the Pakistani government and the ISI and not the common Pakistanis,” he told SBS Punjabi.
Members of the Indian community held protest demonstrations in major Australian cities to protest the attack by a Kashmiri man who rammed a van loaded with explosives into a bus carrying paramilitary forces, killing 44 troops in Pulwama in Indian-administered Kashmir on 14th February.
Members of the Indian community during a protest demonstration in Melbourne. Source: Supplied
A banned group Jaish-e-Muhammad known to operate from Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack.
Protesters marched from Sydney Town Hall station to Martin Place on Sunday to give a memorandum to the Pakistani Consul General, demanding a stop to the alleged funding and refuge to terrorists. Videos on social media showed sloganeering by protesters during the march.
“In less than four weeks, Harmony Week will be organised around Australia and any effort to sabotage harmony should be condemned by the Commonwealth of Australia,” Ms Siddiqqui said.
However, the protest organisers said their demonstration was “an expression of anger” by Indian Australians against the Pakistani establishment.
“It doesn’t threaten relations between Indians and Pakistanis in Australia. I have many friends and colleagues who are from Pakistan. We didn’t want to offend anyone. The protest was to voice our anger and to make the Pakistani Government act against the groups attacking India,” a protest organiser told SBS Punjabi.
India and Pakistan have fought four wars over Kashmir independence from Britain n 1947. The latest attack which is also the worst in decades in Kashmir has brought the nuclear-armed neighbours to the brink of another major conflict with Indian Prime Minister Modi warning of action and his Pakistani counterpart vowing retaliation.
The group that claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack was formed by Maulana Masood Azhar after he and two other prisoners were swapped in exchange of the release of 180 passengers held hostage on a hijacked Air India flight in 1999.
