Heavy police contingents lobbed tear gas shells to disperse thousands of charged demonstrators, determined to march towards a crossing point along the restive Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Saturday evening, affecting around 20 persons, witnesses and hospital sources said.
The scene of clash was Dawarandi village in subdivision Hajira, where police had set up barricades and barbed wires to prevent the participants of an “Azadi Long March” under the aegis of Sardar Muhammad Saghir led faction of pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
Based in Rawalakot, Sardar Saghir was chairman of late Amanullah Khan led faction of JKLF until its amalgamation with Yasin Malik led faction in 2011.
Due to some alleged reservations about the merger, he had launched his own faction of the pro-independence organisation.
About a week ago, he had given a call for the long march from Rawalakot to Tetrinote, a village famous for a crossing point across the LoC, and a ‘dharna’ (sit in) “for an indefinite period” there, to condemn India’s Aug 5 move, scrapping occupied Kashmir’s special status, imposition of curfew, communication blockade and other repressive measures in the occupied territory and to express solidarity with the besieged population there.
Another purpose of the march, according to him, was to condemn the unrelenting ceasefire violations across the LoC, which were “disturbing routine life and causing frequent civilian casualties on both sides.”
He had held meetings with and drawn support from traders, lawyers, students and civil society activists, most of them with pro-independence tendencies.
On Saturday, the Poonch district administration had declared holiday in all educational institutions to maintain order in the wake of the call.
According to witnesses, first a big rally paraded through the city of Rawalakot amid a shutter down by the traders, after which the marchers left for the town of Hajira in vehicles.
Tetrinote is some 13 kilometres ahead of Hajira.
The marchers were holding AJK and JKLF flags, portraits of pioneer Kashmiri guerrilla leader Maqbool Butt and placards, inscribed with slogans calling for withdrawal of “all foreign forces” from both sides of Jammu and Kashmir and its complete independence.
They also kept on chanting same slogans.
Since the administration had got cellular phone services of all networks suspended in Hajira subdivision in the afternoon, reports about the happenings could be ascertained only after restoration of services at 9pm.
When the marchers reached Dawarandi (Madarpur), some 8 kilometres before Tetrinote, they were greeted by AJK police contingents at barricades wrapped with barbed wires.
As the marchers insisted to go ahead, police lobbed tear gas shells to disperse them.
Deputy commissioner Poonch Mirza Arshad Mahmood told Dawn by telephone that tear gas “affected” half a dozen persons.
However, local health facility sources said they had treated some 20 persons hit by tear gas amid mayhem.
Mahmood also dismissed social media reports that Punjab police had been called to handle the situation and said the entire episode was dealt by AJK police under the supervision of divisional and district administration.
“We stopped the participants because Indian army had hoisted red flags on their posts and had also resorted to intermittent firing,” he said.
However, Sardar Ansaar, a local office bearer of JKLF-S, dismissed deputy commissioner’s assertion, claiming that more than one thousand residents of Tetrinote area had already been on a ‘dharna’ since Friday night after staging a ‘torch-bearing’ rally.
“If India did not fire upon them, it would not have fired upon other people,” he said.
Deputy commissioner Mahmood claimed that most of the marchers had evacuated the area.
However, Asif Ashraf, a local journalist, said that the marchers had moved some 100 yards back to a comparatively wide area, where they were on a sit-in under the leadership of Saghir, who announced on the occasion that the march towards Tetrinote would be resumed on Sunday morning.
Saghir also declared that a “long march” would also be staged on state capital Muzaffarabad on October 22 for “restoration of the revolutionary government of AJK and GB that had been established on October 24, 1947.”
He also called upon the Indian government, among other things, to shift Yasin Malik from Tihar Jail to Soura Medical Institute Srinagar where his family could attend him.
Earlier, a similar situation was created at Sarsawa in district Kotli where police had blocked the road to stall the movement of a big rally towards Tetrinote.
Police also fired tear gas shells to disperse the participants of the rally, leaving some of them injured.
Deputy commissioner Kotli Umer Azam said at least three policemen were injured due to alleged stone pelting by the marchers.
Organisers alleged that some people jumped into the river to escape tear gas shelling and one of them had drowned.
It may be recalled that on Friday thousands of people in Khuiratta subdivision of Kotli had also staged a march towards the LoC, which was stopped by the administration in Seri Bazaar.
However, some of the marchers had defied restrictions and managed to get close to the LoC, where at least three of them were injured by Indian firing.
Tariq Naqash
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