JKNPP founder’s son involved in anti-India protest in … removed from blacklist; granted visa to attend mother’s funeral

Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) founder Bhim Singh’s son Ankit Love has been removed from a blacklist and has been issued an emergency visa to attend his mother’s (Jay Mala) funeral after he apologised to Prime Minister Modi for participating in an anti-India protest in London last year (2022).

Ankit Love, is currently based in London, was given a three-month emergency visa on May 4 to attend last rites of his mother, which will take place on the banks of river Devika, Udhampur district on May 5 afternoon. Ankit Love’s visa will expire on August 2, 2023.

“I am reaching Jammu tomorrow (Friday) morning to say the final goodbye to my mother,” Ankit Love said.
He further said that he is happy that his apology was considered by the Government, and was provided with a visa to perform last rites of his mother, whose body has been lying in a mortuary for the past week.

It is to be noted that Ankit Love pelted “eggs and stones” at the Indian High Commission in London in February 2022, after which he was “blacklisted” by the Indian Government after the incident.

Seeking urgent visa approval to visit Jammu and Kashmir, in a passionate appeal to PM Modi, Ankit Love had requested to take him off the “blacklist”.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi dated May 2, he wrote, “I, Ankit Love, son of late Prof Bhim Singh and late Adv Jay Mala, resident of the UK, hereby sincerely apologise for my mistake of pelting eggs and stones at the Indian High Commission in the UK, which I deeply and sincerely regret.”

Seeking forgiveness, he appealed for urgent visa approval to visit “my Union Territory – Jammu and Kashmir – which is in India”.

He also wrote that he was misguided by “some other people surrounding me, which led to this mistake, which I sincerely apologise for”.

“…I assure you that henceforth there will be no such act by me against my nation, which I love very much and am very much proud of,” Love wrote, adding that his late father, Bhim Singh, had also fought all his life for the full accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India.

In another facebook post, he said, “Thank you India, for taking me of black list, so I may go attend my mother’s funeral. God bless”.

Mala, a Supreme Court lawyer, died on April 26. Her body has been kept at a mortuary of Government Medical College (GMC) hospital in Jammu after Ankit Love requested it to be kept there until he returns to perform her last rites.

This comes even as Ankit’s relatives are engaged in a tussle to take control of JKNPP, which has been in disarray following Bhim Singh’s death on May 31 last year.