At least 22 pro-independence activists were taken into custody by Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) police in Hajira subdivision of Poonch district overnight for alleged rioting while a sit-in continued in Tetrinote village on the second consecutive day on Sunday.
On Saturday, police had stopped thousands of participants of an “Azadi Long March” called by Sardar Muhammad Saghir, chief of his own faction of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), at Dawarandi village in Hajira, when they were insisting to move ahead towards Tetrinote that lies in the closest proximity of the restive Line of Control (LoC).
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Police Poonch Tahir Mahmood Qureshi told Dawn on Sunday that the decision to stop the marchers was taken in the interest of their safety “as their leaders had already given an undertaking to the administration that they would not go beyond a designated spot to avoid the risk of Indian shelling.”
However, he alleged, the marchers disregarded the commitment and insisted to go beyond the designated spot in Dawarandi. In the meanwhile, some of climbed the adjacent mountains and pelted stones on the police, he added.
The DIG claimed that as many as 12 police personnel were injured, one of them critically, due to stone pelting.
He admitted that the police resorted to tear gas shelling to disperse the mob, which rendered some of the activists unconscious for sometime.
All of them were rushed to Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Hajira for treatment, he said, but alleged that four ambulances which the administration had placed on standby were ruthlessly damaged by the activists.
He said 25 activists had been taken into custody after midnight, but 3 of them were released for not being involved in the activity.
JKLF sources said Sardar Saghir had himself managed to reach Tetrinote where local activists had set up a sit-in camp on Saturday that continued on the second consecutive day on Sunday.
Speaking to the activists in Tetrinote, Sardar Saghir demanded the “restoration of the revolutionary government of AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan”that he said was established on October 24, 1947.
“Pakistan should open the embassy of this government in Islamabad and then get it recognized from all friendly countries so that it could take the reins of freedom movement in its own hands,”he said.
He condemned the arrest of activists and demanded their immediate and unconditional release.
Alleging that the detainees had been “mercilessly”tortured by the police, he also called for a judicial probe into it.
It may be recalled that Sardar Saghir had given the call for the long march from Rawalakot to Tetrinote and a sit in for an “indefinite period” in Tetrinote to condemn revocation of occupied Kashmir’s special status, imposition of curfew, communication blockade and other repressive measures by India as well as ceasefire violations across the LoC.
Tariq Naqash
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