Muzafarabad [PoJK], May 10 (ANI): Pakistan defence forces are trying to suppress protests and long marches in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) on the call of the Joint Awami Action Committee.
The protest call has been given for May 11. But the locals organised protests in several cities like Muzafarabad, Kothli, Dadayal, Rawalakot, Hajira, Bhimbar, and Bagh of PoJK today.
Locals of the area are protesting against skyrocketing inflation, the non-availability of flour and wheat, extreme load shedding, unemployment, and severe infrastructural underdevelopment.
The protestors claimed that they had been raising their issues for a very long time now, but the Pakistani administration is not paying any attention to them.
A local leader in a protest in PoJK stated that “the level of violence that the law enforcement agencies have employed in PoJK’s is unacceptable and we are protesting here for the same. But we will always continue our protest peacefully, as we are peace-loving people.
“We peacefully are demanding our basic rights, like subsidies on flour and wheat. However, the protests suppressed by the Pakistani defence personnel resulted in shelling and baton charges. This led to several protestors getting severely injured and harassment of the local people,” the leader added.
Another leader from Bagh said, “The administration of PoJK demanded the deployment of defence personnel to suppress the protest being organised by the general public for resolution of their issues. The people of Bagh retaliated against this act of suppression and organised a long march against it. We express our solidarity with the protest invoked by the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) on May 11. We will protest peacefully but the use of defence personnel for suppression is unacceptable.”
In a post on X, a journalist from Pakistan, Hamid Mir, said, “This is Muzaffarabad today. Thousands of Kashmiris violated the old colonial black law, Section 144. They came out from their homes on feet. No transport was used due to wheel jam strike. They are demanding tax-free electricity from Mangla Dam and subsidies on wheat flour.”
https://x.com/HamidMirPAK/status/1788901987825713320
Prior to this, Frontier Corps in hundreds had entered PoJK, resulting in a violent clash between the protestors and Pakistani forces, which resulted in the arrest of 18 protestors.
During the clash between both parties, a baton charge was ordered by the defence personnel and the protestors beat up the Assistant Commissioner of the Dadyal area. A shutterdown strike was also invoked by local leader Shaukat Nawaz Mir, belonging to JAAC. (ANI)
