Tremendous response to Kashmir ‘Million-Man-March’: Barrister Sultan

NEW YORK, Oct 24 (APP): Former Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry, who will lead the “Million-Man-March” in New York on Sunday to press for a just and durable resolution of longstanding Kashmir dispute, said Saturday that Kashmiri-Americans and their supporters were ready for the demonstration.
Chaudhry, who has been visiting various cities across the United States to mobilize the people, said that he found “tremendous response” among the Kashmiri people and supporters of the Kashmir cause.
He said the march was taking place at a time when the world community was seriously concerned about the grave situation in Kashmir which could lead the whole region of South Asia to a major crisis.
The world powers, including the United States, he said, were trying to persuade both India and Pakistan to resume the peaceful negotiation to settle all disputes. including Kashmir.
Mohammad Yasin Malik, Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, who spoke from Srinagar via Skype to a gathering held in Keansburg, New Jersey, expressed full support to the ‘Million-Man-March’.
He thanked the people in the audience for their solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and their willingness to help the people of Kashmir to achieve their right to self-determination.
Malik informed the audience about the latest human rights violations taking place in Kashmir.
He said PDP-BJP coalition government in Srinagar had handed over Jammu & Kashmir to chauvinists like RSS.
This coalition was directly responsible for the murder of innocent Kashmiri driver Zahid Rasool Butt who was attacked on October,9 by these gangsters, he added.
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General of the World Kashmir Awareness and chairman of the event, said that Kashmir was not a bilateral issue between New Delhi and Islamabad, but an internationally recognized dispute, therefore, dialogue process should include all the three parties India, Pakistan and Kashmiri people.
He said that in order to grant the Kashmiris what they demand – the right of self-determination, India must be persuaded to initiate a meaningful dialogue without any preconditions.
Dr. Fai emphasized that Kashmir was the flash point as two nuclear-armed countries — India and Pakistan — were in a state of confrontation over the issue.
Sardar Sawar Khan, former advisor to the prime minister of Azad Kashmir, said that it was “our duty to support the people of Kashmir who are struggling for their right to self-determination. Our objective of ‘Million-Man-March’ is to draw attention of the world powers to the situation in Kashmir and to exert pressure on the government of India and to resolve dispute over Kashmir and help stop human right violations in Indian occupied Kashmir.”
Dr. Taqdees Gilani, a renowned scholar from Azad Kashmir, said that the resolution of Kashmir issue could have enabled both Pakistan and India to spend their finite resources more on the development of their people rather than on defence expenditure.
She expressed her admiration to the Pakistani and Kashmiri American community for being the ambassadors of peace in the United States for the cause of Kashmir.
She said that it was indubitable that the Indian army had committed thousands of human rights violations in Kashmir.
Dr. Asif Rehman, a prominent Pakistani American physician, explained the role of Pakistani American physicians in mobilizing the community to volunteer for free healthcare clinics for all, irrespective of their religious affiliations.
Dr. Rehman said that the United Nations had a moral responsibility to persuade both India and Pakistan to settle the Kashmir conflict through meaningful dialogue.
Ishtiyaq Hameed, representative of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC), said that the way the Kashmiri youth was confronting the Indian forces and turning the entire Kashmiri movement into a peaceful resistance not only impresses the people of Jammu and Kashmiri but also international community.
He said that today the mantle of the freedom struggle of Kashmir had been successfully passed on to the younger generation and they were resolute and determined to take it to its logical