Amidst fervent demonstrations against exorbitant wheat flour and electricity costs in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, a law enforcement officer perished while over a hundred, predominantly officers, sustained injuries in intense altercations between security personnel and protestors, reports from media outlets disclosed on the day of rest.
The disputed zone bore witness to skirmishes on the previous day between law enforcement and members of an advocacy group amidst a comprehensive cessation of activities and commercial operations throughout the territory, as reported by the Dawn newspaper.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kamran Ali of Mirpur informed Dawn.com that Sub-Inspector Adnan Qureshi succumbed to a gunshot wound in his thorax in the town of Islamgarh, where he had been deployed alongside fellow officers to quell a demonstration slated for Muzaffarabad via Kotli and Poonch districts under the auspices of the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC).
The JAAC, prominently represented by traders in many regions of the state, has been clamoring for electricity provisions commensurate with hydroelectric generation costs in the area, subsidized wheat flour, and an abolishment of the privileges enjoyed by the elite echelons of society.
In preceding days, approximately 70 JAAC activists were apprehended by law enforcement in raids conducted at their residences and those of their kin in Muzaffarabad and Mirpur divisions, precipitating severe clashes in Dadyal on the day prior to the weekend.
Subsequently, the committee declared a halt to commercial activities and traffic on the Friday, a day ahead of its scheduled extended march towards Muzaffarabad on Saturday. Against a backdrop of a paralyzing cessation of activities on the Friday, violent confrontations erupted between law enforcement and protestors in various locales of Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK.
On Saturday, barriers of earth were erected on thoroughfares leading to Muzaffarabad, in addition to further detentions, to impede the populace from converging on the state capital.
Observers noted complete halts to activities in the Muzaffarabad and Poonch divisions. The regional administration has summoned a substantial deployment of law enforcement to suppress the burgeoning protests.
SSP Yasin Baig reported that at least one officer and a juvenile sustained injuries as law enforcement resorted to dispersing crowds through tear gas deployment and aerial gunfire in select neighborhoods subsequent to being targeted with stones and projectiles by demonstrators.
Kotli SSP Mir Muhammad Abid revealed that at least 78 officers were wounded in the district due to assaults by troublemakers masquerading as protestors. The SSP disclosed that 59 officers, including Deputy Superintendent of Police Ilyas Janjua, and two officials from the revenue department sustained injuries in Rehaan Galli, while an additional 19 officers were wounded in Sehnsa Baroiyan.
A communiqué from the District Headquarters Hospital Kotli indicated that, apart from the 59 injured officers, nine injured protestors were also admitted for medical attention. SSP Abid mentioned that several police personnel were reportedly wounded in Doliya Jattan. Geo News reported that a total of 29 protestors sustained injuries in the skirmishes.
JAAC spokesperson Hafeez Hamdani vehemently denied any association of the action committee with the violence. He opined that such elements had been deliberately embedded within the ranks of protestors to besmirch a movement aimed solely at securing the legitimate rights of the populace.
During a press briefing on Saturday, Finance Minister of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir Abdul Majid Khan asserted that the government had exercised utmost restraint and was prepared for dialogue to amicably address all contentious matters.
Disputes must be resolved through dialogue, and our doors are perpetually open for discussions. However, this offer should not be construed as a sign of weakness on the part of the government, he emphasized.
He affirmed that the government had acceded to all demands of the action committee, culminating in an agreement inked between the committee and government representatives, encompassing the provision of targeted subsidies on flour and the freezing of electricity tariffs at June 2022 levels. Nonetheless, the committee veered off course from the agreement subsequently, announcing protests for new demands.
Pok’s self-styled prime minister, Chaudhry Anwarul Haq, avowed that the government was poised to provide relief regarding electricity and wheat flour prices following violent demonstrations in Mirpur that claimed the life of an officer and left over 70 others injured.
“The government engaged in negotiations with the Awami Action Committee (AAC), and we have reached an agreement that we are steadfast in implementing,” Haq affirmed, as cited by Geo News.