Honey-trap gang, including a serving police couple, busted in Muzaffarabad

A five member gang, including a couple serving in the police, has been arrested in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir capital for their alleged involvement in honey-trap related kidnappings, robberies and blackmailing, police said here on Tuesday.

According to a police press release, complaints were received from several men who alleged that they had been lured to Muzaffarabad by women posing as romantic partners.

Once in the city, the victims were abducted at gunpoint, taken to secluded locations, robbed of cash and valuables, and later blackmailed using obscene videos and photographs recorded during their captivity.

Police said a woman had also approached them, alleging that a couple was blackmailing her using AI-generated nude clips.

Following these complaints, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Riaz Haider Bukhari constituted a seven-member special investigation team under the supervision of DSPs Ishtiaq Gilani and Faisal Shafique. The team included CIA Inspector Raja Zahid Umar, SHO City Wajahat Kazmi, SHO Saddar Naveedul Hassan, SHO Chattar Klas Mohsin Ali and Jalalabad police post in-charge Liaqat Hameed.

Investigations revealed that the organised gang allegedly targeted individuals by first gaining their trust and affection before summoning them to the city, where they were kidnapped, illegally confined and forced to arrange ransom money from their families.

Police said many victims had refrained from reporting the crimes earlier due to fear of social stigma, making the investigation particularly challenging.

Following intelligence-based operations, police carried out raids on January 21 and arrested five suspects from different locations in Muzaffarabad. They were identified as Raja Umar Sharif, a constable in Rangers Police; his wife Amama, a constable in Reserve Police; Raja Farhan; Raja Atif Ishaq; and Raja Dilawar, an activist of the Joint Awami Action Committee.

Police said that after news of the arrests surfaced on social media, dozens of other victims also came forward, prompting the registration of multiple cases — including kidnapping for ransom, armed robbery and other serious offences — at Saddar, City and Chattar Klas police stations.

The male suspects were remanded into police custody for 10 days, while their female accomplice was sent on judicial remand after two days. During interrogation, police said, the suspects confessed to operating a torture cell where victims were held at gunpoint, assaulted and coerced into arranging ransom payments, while their personal belongings were also looted.

Mobile phones used in the crimes were seized and sent for forensic analysis, police said, adding that two unlicensed pistols were recovered from Dilawar and Farhan, which were allegedly used to threaten victims. Some cash was also recovered, while further recoveries were expected.

When contacted by this scribe, DSP Shafique said the gang had been involved in unlawful activities for over six months but had remained at large as none of the victims had earlier approached the police. He said both police officials among the accused had been placed under suspension and separate departmental inquiries had been initiated against them.

He was of the view that had the suspects not been arrested in time, they could have gone on to commit more serious crimes.

The DSP reiterated the department’s commitment to protecting the lives and property of citizens and taking action against criminals without discrimination, and advised the public to avoid unnecessary use of social media.

Tariq Naqash 

Mushaal urges world community to raise voice for Yasin Malik's release

Mushaal Hussein Mullick, wife of incarcerated Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik, on Tuesday warned that awarding the death penalty to her husband could have far-reaching consequences, including the risk of a nuclear conflict in South Asia that could engulf the entire region and threaten global peace.

Addressing media persons at the Central Press Club, Muzaffarabad, after briefly attending a protest demonstration called by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), Ms Mullick appealed to freedom- and justice-loving people across the world to raise their voices for saving her husband’s life.

Ms Mullick who was accompanied by her daughter Raziyah Sultana and sister Sabeel Hussein Mullick, maintained that Yasin Malik was not struggling solely for the freedom of Kashmir but for peace in the entire world, stressing that Kashmir remained one of the most dangerous nuclear flashpoints due to the unresolved dispute between India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed states.

Drawing comparisons with ongoing conflicts such as Gaza, Ukraine and tensions between Iran and Israel, she said that while those wars pose serious threats, they do not carry the same level of nuclear danger as Kashmir. She also referred to recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan and India, noting that none of those incidents escalated into a nuclear confrontation.

However, she warned that if Indian courts decided to send Yasin Malik to the gallows, it would not merely be a judicial decision but a dangerous declaration of war. “It will be like detonating a hydrogen bomb, the impact of which the world will not be able to handle,” she said, adding that such a move could trigger a “hard war” in the region with nuclear implications. “In that case, the entire Asian region could be drawn into the conflict,” she cautioned.

Ms Mullick said that if a leader who had abandoned armed struggle and adopted a peaceful, political path inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was subjected to psychological, mental and physical torture in a death cell, then it would become extremely difficult to prevent a wider conflict. She added that every Kashmiri who believed in either peaceful or armed resistance would rise against such a verdict.

Questioning the silence of the international community, she said that while a Peace Board could be discussed at the global level for Palestine, the longstanding and grave issue of occupied Jammu and Kashmir continued to be ignored. She asked why no such Peace Board was being established for Kashmir, where, she pointed out, Indian forces had for decades unleashed severe atrocities against unarmed civilians and where gross human rights violations continued unabated.

She said enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture of political prisoners and widespread human rights abuses had been order of the day in occupied Kashmir. "Honestly speaking, the scale of genocide and massacre in Kashmir has been much larger but remains underreported due to prolonged communication blackouts."

Ms Mullick demanded that a ‘board of peace’ or an independent international mechanism be established for Kashmir to ensure durable regional and global peace. As a goodwill gesture, she said, Yasin Malik should be released and allowed to continue his peaceful political struggle.

She also urged the government of Pakistan to take Mr Malik’s case to the International Court of Justice, similar to India’s spy Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case, so that the world could be exposed to India’s fascist face and the reality of its judicial system. She termed Mr Malik’s incarceration and possible execution a blatant violation of international law, human rights and the United Nations Charter.

Earlier, dozens of people gathered at Burhan Wani Chowk in Muzaffarabad to demand the release of the detained JKLF chairman. Shops and businesses remained closed from morning until afternoon following a shutter-down strike call given by the JAAC, marking a shift from local grievances to a broader national issue.

At the conclusion of the demonstration, JAAC leaders went to Domel where they handed over a memorandum to the United Nations observers, urging international intervention in the case.

During the press conference, Ms Mullick praised the JAAC for organising protests and strikes in support of Mr Malik. Paying tribute to the public, activists and youth for participating in demonstrations despite heavy rain, she said their sacrifices were sending a clear message to the world that the Kashmiri people stood firmly with their leadership and would never relinquish their right to freedom.

Tariq Naqash

Pir Panjal Markhor sighted in AJK game reserve along LoC

Wildlife officials in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) have reported a rare sighting of a markhor in a game reserve along the Line of Control (LoC), reinforcing long-held beliefs that the endangered wild goat still roams the area.

A 37-second video recorded by game watcher Waqar Ayub Chughtai shows the markhor cautiously walking across a grassy slope in the Qazinag Game Reserve of Jhelum Valley district before disappearing into rugged terrain.

Speaking to this scribe by telephone Friday, Mr Chughtai said local elders had long recounted the presence of horned wild rams in the region, but the absence of recording equipment in earlier decades meant such accounts could not be verified visually.

“On January 13, I, along with two colleagues, camped in the reserve to trace hoof marks of an animal we initially thought might be a wild goat or another ungulate,” he said. “We followed the tracks for two days, but they repeatedly led into steep and inaccessible areas.”

He said the breakthrough came on Thursday, when the team spotted the markhor with the naked eye around 2pm between compartments eight and ten of the reserve. According to Mr Chughtai, the animal had been moving alongside a flock of domestic goats but altered its route after sensing potential human presence. The footage was later shared with senior wildlife officials in Muzaffarabad once the team reached an area with mobile coverage.

Shaista Ali, the Muzaffarabad based wildlife monitoring officer, confirmed that the sighted animal was a Pir Panjal markhor, a species that once thrived in the range but suffered population declines due to unhindered hunting. “Improved conservation and watch-and-ward measures have helped its numbers recover, and it is now occasionally sighted on our side of the Pir Panjal Range,” she said.

Ms Ali noted that late October to January is the primary breeding season, when normally solitary adult males join female herds. “Being a wild goat species, markhors can hybridize with domestic goats, producing fertile offspring,” she added.

The recent sighting follows a similar event in late October last year, when a young markhor was spotted by a shepherd in the Phaala Game Reserve of AJK’s Haveli district, also along the LoC. Officials identified the animal as a rare Pir Panjal markhor, around eight to nine months old. Despite extensive patrolling over the next two days, the calf’s mother could not be traced, likely due to seasonal migration patterns. The young markhor was moved to Patikka Wildlife Park in Muzaffarabad for care and rehabilitation but died in December, raising concerns among wildlife observers about whether the facility could meet the needs of a wild mountain species.

Tariq Naqash

AJK Assembly urged to take up property seizures in occupied Kashmir

The Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights (JKCHR) has asked the Speaker of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly to convene a special session to deliberate on the attachment of movable and immovable properties of dissenting voices in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, describing the practice as a serious legal and human rights concern in the post–August 5, 2019 period.

In a letter addressed to Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar, the rights body said the attachment of properties belonging to dissenting Kashmiris reflected an evolving policy with far-reaching political, legal and humanitarian implications, rather than an isolated administrative measure.

Referring to the AJK government’s constitutional position, JKCHR said it was not a sub-national administration, as it derived its legitimacy from the framework of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) and relevant UN Security Council resolutions. These, it said, imposed a continuing responsibility to safeguard the rights, political identity and material interests of the people of the former princely state pending the exercise of their right to self-determination.

The letter, signed by JKCHR President Dr Syed Nazir Gilani, noted that while the AJK government was rightly expected to address internal governance issues — including those raised by, and acknowledged in principle with, the rights movement led by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC) — such engagement must not eclipse or displace its core international obligations under the UNCIP framework. Internal reform, it said, could not become a substitute for protecting Kashmiri rights against external coercion and dispossession.

According to the letter, the post–August 5, 2019 policy of property attachment by the Indian government constituted a coercive practice aimed at undermining indigenous ownership, silencing political dissent and eroding the material basis of Kashmiri identity. Its consequences, it said, extended beyond occupied Kashmir to affect Pakistan-based Kashmiri refugees represented through the 12 constituencies, as well as members of the Kashmiri diaspora whose property and inheritance rights remained linked to the state.

The public marking of attached properties, erection of noticeboards and physical identification of homes and lands functioned as instruments of social and psychological intimidation, the letter said, warning against attempts to trivialise such actions as a “new normal” by citing isolated past incidents.

Property attachment, it added, directly assaulted the rights to livelihood, residence, family life and political opinion, rendering citizenship conditional in a manner incompatible with democratic norms and fundamental principles of international human rights law.

JKCHR urged the Speaker to convene a special session of the Legislative Assembly to deliberate on the legality and implications of property attachments, their impact on refugees and diaspora Kashmiris, and AJK’s constitutional and international obligations under the UNCIP resolutions. 

The Assembly, it said, should also be encouraged to consider reviving a formal plebiscite framework, including the appointment of a Plebiscite Adviser, as envisaged under the Karachi Agreement (1949), the AJK Act, 1970, the Interim Constitution, 1974, and as directed by a full bench of the AJK High Court in December 1992. It further called on the House to request the government of Pakistan to share data relating to electoral rolls and the polling sub-committee established in 1949 in connection with the proposed plebiscite.

JKCHR offered to brief the proposed special session and place the relevant legal, constitutional and international record before its members for informed deliberation. It also suggested inviting World Forum for Peace and Justice Chairman Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai and All Parties Hurriyat Conference Convenor Ghulam Muhammad Safi to address the Assembly.

“The attachment, by its very nature, is coercive, punitive and deterrent. It must therefore be condemned, resisted, legally challenged and politically exposed, not rationalised or allowed to settle into permanence,” the letter said, expressing hope that the AJK Assembly would rise to this responsibility in defence of the rights and future of the Kashmiri people.

Tariq Naqash

Merit, Make-Believe and Motor Cars: The Reality Behind the Veil of Austerity

 

For two and a half years, he vigorously sold the public the rhetoric of “merit” and “austerity”. He moved around in a small Cultus (MDGB-196) and taunted others, with trademark bravado: “Why don’t they, like me, use their private cars after office hours?”

What he conveniently overlooked was that many people knew the Cultus he flaunted was itself an official vehicle disguised with a private number plate. But that was only the most superficial deception — visible to anyone. The real story runs deeper, and it must be placed on record, especially for those who still cling to the belief that Chaudhry Anwarul Haq was somehow different from the rest. 

It may not shock his ardent admirers, but it will certainly surprise them to learn that Mr Haq had placed not one, not two, but six to seven official vehicles at the disposal of his family — including the very spouse whom he recently portrayed, in a theatrically crafted and planted interview, as the one who “met his expenses by giving tuition (sic)”.

The vehicles included:

• a black five-door Prado (GA-727)

• a silver five-door Prado (MRGA-040)

• a grey Toyota Camry (MDGC-222)

• a white Toyota Altis car (MDGC-333) — purchased for him as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee – an office he simultaneously held while being the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly

• a white five-door Land Cruiser (X68-3446)

• a black KIA Sorento (MDGB-230)

• a black Toyota Fortuner (GA-064) — the one he has now kept for himself under the category of “former prime minister’s privileges”

All of these were driven with private number plates to avoid recognition.

The irony is unmistakable: day after day, as a ritual, he denounced various purported “mafias” and accused his predecessors of extravagance at the state’s expense. Yet while he dazzled the gullible public with his Cultus, behind the scenes he quietly amended the law governing ex-prime ministers’ privileges — just seven months after assuming office.

He upgraded the entitlement from an 1800cc car to a 3000cc vehicle, added the deployment of four constables with a senior police officer as guard at the residence, and replaced the grade-11 personal assistant with a grade-16 officer. 

And he did not stop there. He ensured that former prime ministers would enjoy state-funded accommodation across the entire country — yes, across the entire country — by inserting into the law a clause granting them “unrestricted access” to all government guest houses, rest houses and circuit houses.

Other perks — 400 litres of fuel per month, a driver, a gunman, and a Rs50,000 monthly house rent allowance — remained intact. All of this, of course, in addition to their salary or pension as MLAs.

Pertinently, his predecessors had already taken brand-new 1800cc cars at the end of their terms. But since Mr Haq personally wanted a five-door jeep, he simply rewrote the law to make it possible. On several occasions, however, he tried — in his trademark elliptical manner — to shift the responsibility for this amendment onto a few former prime ministers, particularly Raja Farooq Haider.

Around the same period, while addressing the Central Bar Association Muzaffarabad, he said — without naming anyone — that “some people have submitted an application to me” on this matter. “I’ve told them that departments have surrendered several 2002–2005 five-door vehicles to the transport pool, and that they can exchange their cars with those if they wish,” he had said, predicting that “hardly anyone would ever trade a new car for an old one.”

I remember pointing out in a social media post that the amended law does not state that the 3000cc vehicle must be from the 2002 or 2005 models. It only mentions the upgraded engine capacity. Under this law, any prime minister could buy a new 3000cc vehicle and take it home. And, as expected, when it came to Mr Haq himself, he did not pick a 2002 or 2005 model from the transport pool — he simply took a relatively new Fortuner, the very one he had allocated to his family alongside the other official vehicles the day he assumed office.

During our first formal meeting last year — where the then and current minister Malik Zafr Iqbal was also present — I asked the former prime minister why he had expanded the perks instead of abolishing them. His justification was that “several former prime ministers had kept dozens of low-ranking staff, including police personnel, at their homes without legal entitlement, and I merely ‘regularised’ the practice by allowing only a quarter of that number and recalling the rest.”

I couldn’t resist responding: “Sir, it is like allowing someone to commit adultery with four instead of eighteen.” He offered no reaction to my blunt remark.

He often claimed that he drew no salary and would never take a pension. With this at the back of my mind, during another meeting in June this year, I suddenly asked him whether he intended to avail the former prime minister’s perks. He had not expected the question. After a brief pause, he muttered, “For a little while.”

Let’s see how long that “little while” lasts.

The latest development is that barely a week after being ousted from the office, he has demanded additional security from the government, reportedly claiming that his “life is under threat from India.” It is said that the request has already been granted and that four commandos from the Special Police Unit have been assigned to him.

It’s why I am compelled to repeat that those who still consider Mr Haq an epitome of merit and austerity must rethink their position.

This is the same gentleman who, as Speaker in 2010, introduced the luxury of travelling with a police squad — an expense the AJK Assembly had never borne before. In the same period, the direct appointment of a close relative as Assembly Secretary in grade 21 stands as another unmatched example of his so-called commitment to merit.

When he became Speaker again in 2021, he promptly opened a “camp office” at Kashmir House. As prime minister, besides the PM Block, he occupied the entire ground floor of a newly constructed building at Kashmir House, where he spent most of his time over the past two and a half years, despite constant criticism from many.

Fear and pressure may have prevented officials from exposing the truths behind the former prime minister’s lofty claims, but facts have a way of resurfacing — no matter how many layers of rhetoric are draped over them.

Perhaps someday, when the smoke clears from his pre-scripted, carefully curated TV interviews, someone will finally hold Mr Haq to account for the myth of his “simplicity”.

 

Tariq Naqash

Death of woman fleeing 'moral policing' sparks outrage in AJK

The death of a young woman after falling from a cliff on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad on Saturday has triggered widespread outrage across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), with demands for the harshest punishment for those accused of harassing couples under the guise of “moral policing” to extort money or valuables.

According to a police spokesperson, the incident occurred at about 1:15pm near Mera Tanolian village on Pir Chinasi Road, when Aqeel Ahmed, son of Muhammad Hussain, and his tenant, Ms Fakhra Amjad, daughter of Muhammad Amjad — both residents of the Plate neighbourhood in Muzaffarabad — had stopped their Mehran car by the roadside while returning from a drive.

Three to four men, one of them a police constable in plain clothes, confronted the pair, deemed their presence “suspicious,” and began beating Aqeel Ahmed. 

During the assault, Ms Amjad got out of the car and tried to flee, but fell approximately 100–120 feet down a mountainside into a ravine, sustaining critical head injuries.

Aqeel Ahmed, also injured, tried to take her to hospital, but she died on the way. Her body was sent for postmortem at CMH Muzaffarabad before being handed over to her family.

Police arrested Aqeel Ahmed and Amir, son of Gul Zaman — a police constable from Mera Tanolian posted elsewhere — and were searching for the remaining suspects, the spokesperson said, adding, legal proceedings had been initiated.

The incident sparked street protests and a wave of online condemnation of so-called “moral brigades” accused of harassing and blackmailing couples for extortion.

 On Sunday, dozens gathered outside the Press Club, demanding to know under what law anyone could question people about their relationships or reasons for visiting tourist spots.

Shahid Zaman Awan, a prominent civil society activist, said that if police had done their job, there would have been no need for the protest. 

“Instead of swooping on those who caused the girl’s death, they have arrested the boy who accompanied her. This is the worst example of traditional police tactics,” he said.

Another protester, Yasir Mughal, demanded swift punishment for the culprits to deter such incidents.

Social media posts reflected similar anger. 

According to many netizens, such incidents had been occurring in this and some other areas as well for a long time, but most victims would avoid reporting them to the police or speaking out publicly.

“Had the authorities taught an unforgettable lesson to some of the culprits, others would have learned from it. But alas, this does not fall in their priorities,” lamented Arham Shaikh, a local resident.

Famous social and political commentator Naila Altaf Kayani called the tragedy “yet another grim consequence of self-styled moral policing,” noting eyewitness claims that a police constable was among the perpetrators.

 “Does our state give anyone the right to take a life?” she asked, calling it proof of “societal hypocrisy and the failure of law.”

Entrepreneur Azra Hafeez Salib decried “institutions openly backing thugs instead of doing their jobs,” warning that if the region could not uphold the rule of law, “God help the rest.” 

Waqas Ahmed Zia, a young civil servant, called the killing “a stinging slap in the face of our justice system,” describing the “moral brigade” as robbers and killers shielded by political patronage.

Activist Fatima Anwar alleged the group had long been involved in harassment, looting, and sexual exploitation, and that a plainclothes police constable was among those who assaulted and robbed the couple, driving the girl to her death. 

Calling it “not an accident but a murder,” she urged a boycott of Pir Chinasi until those responsible are punished.

Playwright Ishtiaq Ahmed Aatish ridiculed the police account as “suspect,” asking why, if the injured girl was being taken to hospital by her companion, “the three or four ‘noble gentlemen’ had vanished.” 

“The Inspector General of Police should release the real report,” he demanded.

Tariq Naqash

CEC vacancy in AJK a threat to democracy: Tariq Farooq

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) regional secretary general and former senior minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq has expressed serious concern over the prolonged vacancy in the office of Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), warning that it is crippling democratic institutions and could jeopardise the 2026 general elections.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Farooq pointed out that the post had been lying vacant for more than seven months, leaving the Election Commission “functionally paralysed” and local bodies “defunct.”

He noted that under Article 50 of the AJK Interim Constitution, the appointment of a neutral and empowered CEC was obligatory for holding free, fair and timely polls. 

“This is not merely an administrative delay — it is a dangerous political undercurrent,” he said.

Under the AJK’s Interim Constitution, the CEC is appointed by the AJK president on the advice of the chairman of the AJK Council — i.e., the Prime Minister of Pakistan — based on nominees proposed by the AJK prime minister in consultation with the leader of the opposition in the AJK Legislative Assembly. 

The commission also includes a senior member and a member, both appointed solely on the advice of the AJK prime minister.

The commission has been without a chairman since January 14, a day after the completion of the five-year term of retired Justice Abdul Rashid Sulehria as CEC. 

While the senior member position also remains vacant, retired secretary Syed Nazeerul Hassan Gillani was appointed as a member by Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq on January 11.

Political circles allege that Mr Haq is dragging the matter for “reasons best known to him,” a stance that has infuriated his opponents, who suspect the “deliberate” delay is aimed at influencing future electoral outcomes.

On March 27, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had constituted a three-member committee headed by the federal law minister and comprising the federal Kashmir affairs secretary and AJK’s chief secretary to “review the legal scheme and the procedure of appointment of CEC under the provisions of AJK Interim Constitution and any other ancillary aspects of the issue” and submit recommendations within seven days.

The move drew criticism from the AJK chapters of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who argued that the AJK Constitution assigns no role to the federal law minister in the appointment process. 

The committee reportedly held one meeting, in which the AJK chief secretary was directed to speak to the AJK premier about the matter.

However, since then, neither the committee nor the office of the AJK Council chairman (the prime minister of Pakistan) has made any progress, despite PML-N regional president Shah Ghulam Qadir and parliamentary leader Raja Farooq Haider publicly denouncing the delay as a “blatant constitutional violation” by the AJK premier.

“The silence of the AJK Council, chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, is deeply worrying. The Council bears constitutional responsibility for this appointment, and further delay is unjustifiable,” said Mr Farooq, the PML-N regional secretary general.

He warned that continued inaction risked eroding AJK’s constitutional framework and could be perceived as an attempt to undermine its autonomous status. “Political parties, civil society and the lawyers’ fraternity have already voiced strong concerns about what appears to be a deliberate constitutional deadlock,” he added.

Mr Farooq further said the situation was damaging Pakistan’s credibility on the Kashmir issue internationally. “How can we advocate for democratic rights in Indian-occupied Kashmir while failing to uphold them in the territory under our own administration?” he asked.

He urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in his capacity as AJK Council chairman, to immediately appoint a competent and impartial CEC, resolving any procedural obstacles stemming from the 13th Constitutional Amendment through transparent dialogue. 

“This is not just about filling a vacant office — it’s about safeguarding democracy and the people’s right to representation,” he said.

Tariq Naqash