Revealed: Wannabe Labour MP spoke at rally with terrorist sympathiser 'guests of honour'

A Labour candidate has been accused of being “obsessed with overseas causes” thousands of miles away from the people she wants to represent.

Sir Keir Starmer’s selection for the parliamentary seat of North East Cambridgeshire, currently held by Environment Secretary Steve Barclay, spoke at two meetings where the “guest of honour” and “chief guest” were radical Pakistani politicians.

Luton councillor Javeria Hussai spoke alongside men who have expressed “full support” for terrorist group Hizbul Mujahideen.

The militant organisation’s main aim is to tear the Kashmir region away from India and merge it with Pakistan on religious grounds.

It was designated as a terrorist group by the EU in 2015 when the UK was still a member and is also proscribed by the US, India and Canada.

The UK has since placed the group under counter-terrorism sanctions for claiming “responsibility for several terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir”.

Its militant thugs claimed responsibility for attacks against civilians while praising their terrorist commanders as “heroes” and “freedom fighters”.

But none of these concerning facts stopped Labour’s recently selected candidate from speaking alongside supporters of the group.

Ms Hussain gave a speech calling for rights for Kashmir at a 2019 rally organised by Pakistani political party PTI on issues in Kashmir and Pakistan.

And she was just a few seats away from Sultan Mehmood Chaudry, the “guest of honour”.

Chaudry hailed a prominent commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen who was killed in July 2018 as a “martyr”.

He led TV tributes in Kashmir on the sixth anniversary of the death of Burhan Wan, saying his death “infused a new spirit in the Kashmiri’s ongoing resistance movement”.

Chaudry also said Wani’s “suffering imbued another soul in the Kashmiri’s continuous opposition development”.

A local Tory campaign source said: “People in North East Cambridgeshire need an MP who stands up for them and who understands local concerns, not a city councillor from Luton obsessed with overseas causes that are rooted thousands of miles from Fenland.”

A Labour source pointed out Chaudry is linked to dozens of MPs, both Labour and Conservative, and has regularly briefed them in parliament and the Foreign Office sent a delegation to meet Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry to discuss Kashmir.

In 2021, Paul Bristow, the Conservative candidate for Peterborough, met with Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry the then-new President of Azad Kashmir (part of the world where many of his constituents can trace their ancestry).

Mr Bristow said in a social media message: “We discussed Peterborough, human rights in Kashmir and the Kashmir APPG.”

Javeria Hussain also spoke at a meeting on Kashmir addressed by “chief guest” Sardar Masood Khan in 2020, the then-president of Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Sardar Masood Khan is a Pakistani-Kashmiri diplomat. He is Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States and also represents Pakistan at the UN. Khan is a former President.

But he has been described as a “bonafide terrorist sympathiser” by American congressman Scott Perry.

He expressed “full support” for the Hizbul Mujahideen after they were designated a terrorist group by the United States in 2017 and praised their fighters as “martyrs”.

Khan has also repeatedly praised Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, the commander of terrorist organisation Hizbul Mujahideen, as a “hero” and symbol of the “new intifada”.

Khan said Wani was “Kashmir’s most beloved freedom fighter” and also praised South Asian Islamist group Jamaat-e-Islami and favourably compared Kashmiri freedom fighters to the Taliban.

He has also been linked to Tory James Daly, who thanked Khan in a video message⁩ for his “moving and supportive message” as he completed his term as AJK President.

He said: “Grateful to you and Conservative Friends of Kashmir.”

The Labour Party and Javeria Hussain were approached for comment.