Kashmiri-Americans and their supporters, including representatives of all Pakistani political parties, staged a big rally in front of the White House to thank President Donald Trump for offering to mediate the decades-old Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India to pave the way for peace and stability in the region.

 According to Kashmir Media Service, the participants of the rally waved banners and shouted slogans, “Thank you, thank you, President Trump” for his statesmanship, and seeking to resolve the Kashmir dispute as well as for the ceasefire between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. 

The demonstrators stood in the rain in gratitude to President Trump as a number of speakers called for the early resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council that call for a UN-supervised plebiscite to decide the future of the disputed State.Sardar Zarif Khan, Advisor to the President of Azad Kashmir and the main organizer of the event, praised the determination of the men, women and children to come to the rally in inclement weather to express their deep appreciation to President Trump for his leadership.

He, however, warned that although at present there is a ceasefire, the hostility between the two countries has not abated. “Voices of malevolence continue to be heard from all quarters. India is on a shopping spree for the fifth-generation aircraft and weaponry that ostensibly will provide them with an edge in a forthcoming war,” Sardar Zarif added. 

Dr. Ghulam N. Mir, President of the World Kashmir Awareness Forum & Chairman of the Kashmir Diaspora Coalition said that 77 years of often bloody wars between two nuclear powers with burgeoning, mostly impoverished populations, had brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a nuclear conflict only a week ago—all that because of the Indian occupation of Kashmir, and Kashmiris’ unrelenting yielding love for freedom. 

Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Chairman of the World Forum for Peace & Justice, said that the nation of Kashmir expresses the deepest gratitude at the forthright and principled stand taken by President Trump for offering his office of mediation to settle the 78-year-old dispute between India and Pakistan. 

Dr. Fai said that peace in the region would benefit not only those who are directly impacted by this conflict but India as well, whose economy is seriously drained by the maintenance of such a massive number of troops in Kashmir, and the diversion it creates from other challenges it faces in raising the living standards of its population. 

Dr. Imtiaz Khan said, “Today, we the Kashmiri-American and Pakistani-American communities, have gathered in front of the White House to express our sincere gratitude to its current occupant, President Donald J. Trump. If it was not for his deep understanding of the problem, the region was headed towards unmitigated disaster, leading to unparalleled human fatalities.

 “The hostilities between India and Pakistan have risen to the extent that they were few steps away from nuclear disaster that would have engulfed the major population of the world,” Dr.Imtiaz said. In this regard, he added, President Trump and Secretary of State MarcoRubio deserve all the encomiums for their painstaking efforts to avert the calamity by brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)