Jammu and Kashmir: Human Rights

Baroness Northover Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I will write to the noble Lord on his final point about formal engagement. As he knows, media freedom and the protection of journalists is a priority for Her Majesty’s Government; we are leading on a coalition with Canada. On the specific issue of Amnesty International and its situation in India, I assure the noble Lord that I have raised that directly with the Government of India.

[Baroness Northover (LD)]

My Lords, the former Chief Minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, Mrs Mufti, was detained in August last year when the Indian Government stripped the region of its partial autonomy. She was put under house arrest under a law that allows detention without charge for up to two years. She has only just been freed. Have the Government raised this and other arbitrary detentions in the region with the Government of India?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I assure the noble Baroness that we have; we raised that specific case.