LONDON, DEC 16: Marsha Singh, a Labour MP of Indian origin, has been castigated for indulging in ``India baiting'' on the issue of Kashmir in the House of Commons, and charged with being a ``mouthpiece of Islamic terrorists''.

Objecting to Singh sponsoring an ``early day motion on Kashmir'' in the house along with other known pro-Pakistani Labour MPs, the British Asian Forum for Human Rights said the reference to ``violation'' of human rights in Kashmir in the motion was based on false Pakistani propaganda. Even international human rights bodies this year had acknowledged there had been no excesses, it said.

Reminding the member from Bradford West that he had been voted in also with support from people of Indian origin, forum president Peter Pendsay, leader of the Labour-run Brent Council, warned Singh that indulging in ``such gimmickry and falsehoods on behalf of Islamic terrorists groups could prove to be self-destructive''.

Accusing the MP of ``playing to the tunes of Pakistani agents'', Pendsay, one of the longest-serving Labour councillors of Indian origin, said, ``while Marsha Singh claims courage in India baiting, he hardly dares utter a word on widespread atrocities on people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in Gilgit and Baltistan, who don't even have basic rights''. This is the first time that a British Asian organisation has joined issue with the maverick India-baiting Labour lobby.

Pendsay reminded the Labour MPs that ``you conveniently overlook the fact that India took the lead in setting up a National Human Rights Commission while Pakistan, with widespread human rights abuses recorded by Amnesty International, does not pretend to have one, even now''.

The Labour MPs, including Singh, in their motion had harped on ``continued human rights abuses in Indian-held Kashmir'' in almost verbatim format of what was presented by the Pakistan Foreign Minister during the just-concluded OIC meeting in Tehran.

The British Asian forum said these Labour members, while projecting themselves as ``champions of fair play and justice'' on Kashmir, hardly ever dared to comment on continued atrocities against Mohajirs, Shias and Ahmediyas in Pakistan. ``We don't know where their sense of fair play goes when Pakistani-equipped Islamic terrorists kidnap and gruesomely kill foreign hostages and indulge in ethnic cleansing in Kashmir,'' the forum said.

The forum asked these leaders ``why doesn't your sense of fair play come into action when Kashmiri terrorist groups carry out widespread rapes, abductions and extortions against Kashmiri Muslims, which have recently been recorded by Amnesty International''.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.