On Tuesday, 26 people were shot and killed in a terror attack at a beauty spot in the Indian-administered region of Kashmir. India has blamed Pakistan for the attack, which left a further 17 injured and has downgraded diplomatic relations and suspended a vital water-sharing treaty. Unlike the rest of India, Kashmir’s population is majority-Muslim, and the region has long struggled with Islamic separatist militancy.

India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri yesterday expelled Pakistani diplomats, closed the primary border crossing that connects the two nations, and mandated that certain Pakistani visa holders vacate within 48 hours. Pakistani officials have firmly denied any involvement in the attack, claiming that India is using “an unfortunate incident of terrorism” to get out of the Indus Waters Treaty.

The rivalry between India and Pakistan, which has led to multiple wars and much bloodshed since the British partition in 1947, is nothing new. This incident, particularly, seems to have rekindled deep-seated grievances and fanned the flames of hostility between the two nations. Unfortunately, the emotional impact of such tragic incidents is felt not just within the borders of Pakistan and India but also among their diaspora worldwide, where individuals carry the weight of their national identities and historical conflicts. Britain, with its 1.8 million Indians and 1.5 million Pakistanis, is no exception.

Conspicuously, the unrest in Leicester in 2022 was influenced by the Indo-Pakistani conflict over the disputed region of Kashmir. This complex geopolitical issue led to protests and ethnic violence between groups of young Pakistani and Indian men, and local police were ill-equipped to deal with such unknown divisions. Sadly, a city that has long been admired for its vibrant cultural tapestry and harmonious coexistence now has a reputation for inter-ethnic conflict based on sectarian politics.

No violence has yet broken out in the UK from this week’s terror attack in Kashmir. But Leicester provided an alarming reminder that foreign conflicts can unearth long-hidden fault lines within multicultural, multi-ethnic modern Britain.

This has been felt keenly since Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war. In last year’s UK general election, four independent MPs were elected on pro-Palestine tickets in areas with large Muslim populations. Before the election last year, an organisation called The Muslim Vote listed 18 demands for the Labour Party to win back support of the “Muslim community”, as if there exists such a monolithic demographic.

Such toxic lobbying on behalf of foreign agendas is not only limited to the political arena. A recent Daily Mail investigation revealed that Left-leaning teachers had been proudly spreading pro-Palestine literature and messages in schools. For example, a primary school teacher who posted a conspiracy theory on Facebook that Mossad was responsible for the 9/11 attacks also showed pupils a film that accuses Israel of apartheid. Along with this, there has been a stark rise in antisemitism, with some pro-Palestine activists glorifying Hamas and chanting genocidal slogans on university campuses and on marches.

Moreover, recent incidents such as a violent clash within the Eritrean diaspora in Camberwell and a brawl in Bournemouth between rival Afghan and Romanian gangs serve to illuminate the fact that there are increasing divides along ethnic sectarian lines that are plaguing British society.

The UK is home to a sizeable and growing immigrant population, yet the discussion around integration and assimilation is largely dismissed as “far-Right talking point”. The reality is that this influx of immigrants — especially since Brexit — from certain parts of the world which are plagued by instability, tribalism and ethnic conflict has introduced new dynamics which have destabilised British communities. It is naive for those who care about giving immigrants a better life to ignore how these tensions foster resentment among British people who never had to deal with this problem before.

However, merely blaming immigrants for not integrating enough or asserting that sectarian tensions have simply been imported misses a vital aspect of our socio-political landscape. The British state is deeply committed to identity politics and an ideology of multiculturalism which views groups as distinct and separate categories. This only widens existing rifts, while allowing the state to look the other way when it comes to harmful cultural practices. Reducing the potential instability from foreign conflicts in Britain will have to begin with first rejecting our divisive state-sanctioned moral relativism.

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Khadija Khan is a journalist and commentator.

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