THE President of Azad Kashmir, a province in Pakistan, has visited Bradford to meet with members of the community and local campaigners.

Azad Kashmir is a self-governing administrative division of Pakistan, and is the region were most of Bradford’s Muslim community originate from.

The area’s president, Masood Khan, visited the Pakistan Consulate in North Parade, where he met with local MPs, dignitaries and campaigners.

The province is in the Kashmir region which has been the subject of a long-running conflict between Pakistan and India, and campaigners are calling for it to become an independent nation.

The visit also coincided with Azad Kashmir Day, which took place today, and celebrated the anniversary of the government being founded in 1947.

Mr Khan is currently on a five-day visit to the UK to raise awareness of the plight in Kashmir, which will culminate in a protest outside 10 Downing Street demanding the UK helps to resolve the issue.

Choudhary Rangzeb, a former Bradford Councillor and Lord Mayor, is a major figure in the Bradford-based Jammu and Kashmir Self-Determination Movement (JKSDM).

He said the President is visiting the UK to meet the community and to raise awareness of the ongoing suffering of the Kashmiri people.

“The people of Kashmir just want the right to decide their own future and to govern themselves,” he said.

“We had a lunch and also met with local MPs, and the leader of the opposition in Kashmir, Choudhary Muhammad Yasin, was here as well.”

Bradford MPs Judith Cummins and Naz Shah and the leader of Bradford Council Susan Hinchcliffe all attended the meeting at the consulate, and Mr Khan also had lunch with Keighley MP Kris Hopkins earlier that day.

Raja Najabat Hussain, chairman of the JKSDM, praised Bradford for its support of Kashmir.

He said: “Bradford’s MPs have always supported us in our journey for independence. Kris Hopkins wrote to foreign secretary Boris Johnson about the issue, Philip Davies raised it in Parliament, and we have always had Bradford’s backing.

“Bradford is the base for Kashmiri support in the UK and has led the way ever since the city’s MPs started the Kashmir All-Party Parliamentary Group in 1986.”

Mr Rangzeb said he expects five or six coaches from Bradford to make the journey to London for the Kashmir protest on Thursday, November 27, where they will be joined by thousands more Kashmiri people.