Kashmir Gets Resounding Response at Iconic Times Square    Kashmiri Americans along with friends of Kashmir, including women and children gathered at New York’s historic Times Square to show solidarity with the people of Kashmir. The rally was jointly organized by all Kashmiri American Diaspora organizations. The protestors held up placards and banners which read: ‘Decolonize Kashmir’ ‘UN, UN, Wake Up, UN’ “Release, Release: Yasin Malik’ ’Kashmiris Reject Indian Occupation’  ‘Kashmiris Demand Human Rights’, ‘Kashmir for Kashmiris.’ Sardar Haleem Khan, Chairman, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, North America, the emcee of the rally, made a passionate appeal to peace-loving people and nations of the world to pay attention to the pain and suffering of the people of occupied Kashmir. Mohmmad Yasin Malik, Haleem Khan added, is the undisputed leader of the Kashmiri political resistance movement. We demand the unconditional release of all political leaders, including Yasin Malik. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum, said, “August 5, 2019, is considered to be one of the darkest chapters in the history of Kashmir. It was on that fateful day that Narendra Modi abrogated Article 370 and Article 35A that paved the way for the enactment of Domicile Law which is designed to change the demography of Kashmir. India being a so-called ‘largest democracy’ is an illusion, delusion, and hallucination. It is a mirage. One can call it the modern form of settler colonialism. New York Times (August 24, 2022) said it the best, ‘Modi’s India is where global democracy dies,’ and Huffington Post described it in these words, ‘As Kashmir is erased, Indian democracy dies in silence.’ Dr Fai appealed to the UN Secretary General to invoke Article 99 to intervene in Kashmir as Dr Gregory Stanton, Chairman, Genocide Watch has said that ‘Kashmir was at the brink of genocide.’ Dr Imtiaz Khan, Professor at George Washington University Medical Center, spoke about the rise in human right abuses in Indian occupied Kashmir. Killings of youth and molestation of women continues in an unabated manner. Since August 5, 2019, India is pursuing a policy to alter the demographics of the territory. Hundreds of thousand militants and army personnel have been provided domicile certificates and allotted land that has been grabbed from local Muslim population. The final objective is to deprive people of their livelihood, convert Muslim-majority to Hindu-majority, and restrict the local population to ghettos. Dr Khan added that amongst all this gloom and despair there is a silver lining. To gain international acceptability for the annexation of Kashmir, India hosted a G20 tourism meeting in the region a few months ago. But many countries like China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Egypt refused to attend. Even other member countries sent a low-level delegation to show minimal presence. This can be called a positive signal for the peace-loving people of Kashmir. The international community succinctly stated their position on IOK and refused to buy the Indian line that everything was hunky dory there. Other speakers, expressing similar sentiments on the occasion, included: Sardar Sawar Khan, former member of Azad Kashmir Legislative Council; Tariq Rehman of ICNA Council of Social Justice; Sardar Zarif Khan, Honorary Advisor to the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir and the Secretary General of Kashmir American Welfare Association (KAWA); Khalid Awan, President of PPP America; Raja Razak, prominent Kashmiri; Raja Mukhtar, Senior Vice President, JKLF; Maqbool Gujjar, former minister of Azad Kashmir; Sardar Taj Khan, Vice Chairman of Kashmir Mission, USA; Sardar Imtiaz Geralvi, Secretary General, Kashmir Mission, USA; Saghir Khan, President, Kashmiri American Alliance; Sardar Sajid Sawar; Sardar Aftab Roshan Khan; Farooq Mirza, President 4thpillar media watchdog; Muhammad Manzoor of Dunya News; Zahid Shahbaz of Pak Watan TV; Sister Amna Habib; Dr Shafique, Shahid Comrade of Human Rights Freedom Moment, Rizwan Hameed, Thaseen Hussain, Owais Munsif, Faisal Qureshi, Raja Hameed, and Vilesh Pratap Dr Fai is the Chairman, World Forum for Peace & Justice. - gnfai2003@yahoo.com