PM Shehbaz convenes high-level meeting on AJK protests

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has convened a high-level meeting on Monday, which will discuss the ongoing protests in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

PM Sharif earlier on Sunday also spoke to the prime minister of AJK and directed the Pakistan Muslim League-N office bearers in the region to engage with the leaders of the action committee to find a peaceful resolution.

In a tweet, he expressed deep concern over the ongoing situation in AJK, urging all parties to adopt a peaceful course of action to resolve their demands.

PM Shehbaz emphasised that while debate, discussion, and peaceful protests were beauty of democracy, there was no tolerance for taking the law into one’s own hands and damaging government properties.

“Unfortunately in situations of chaos and dissent, there are always some, who rush in to score political points,” he wrote on his X timeline. “Despite the efforts of detractors, the matter is expected to be settled soon.”

Azad Kashmir witnessed violent clashes between the police and activists of a rights movement amid a wheel-jam and shutter-down strike across the territory, which left at least one police official dead and several others injured.

Sub-inspector Adnan Qureshi succumbed to a gunshot wound in the chest in the town of Islamgarh, where he was deployed to stop a rally for Muzaffarabad under the banner of the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC).

The JAAC, which has traders at the forefront in most parts of the state, has been seeking the provision of electricity as per hydropower generation cost in AJK, subsidised wheat flour and an end to the privileges of the elite class.

The violent protesters damaged multiple vehicles, including a magistrate’s car at the Poonch-Kotli road. Moreover, markets, trade centres, offices and schools and restaurants remained closed across the AJK.