Tarar links AJK unrest to foreign funded agenda
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Tuesday that the recent protests by the banned Joint Awami Action Committee in Azad Jammu and Kashmir were not peaceful. He alleged that militant groups pursuing a foreign agenda, backed by funding from India, were involved in the unrest.
Earlier the same day, AJK Information Secretary Muhammad Rashid Hanif said many protesters taking part in the JAAC demonstrations were linked to Fitna Al Khawarij. This is the term Pakistani authorities use for militants belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
Speaking at a press conference, Hanif said illegal and violent acts had taken place in AJK, aimed at disrupting the ongoing phases of the region’s elections. He said maintaining law and order and protecting the democratic process remains the state’s core duty, and the state is capable of doing so.
Hanif said the JAAC protests were not made up of ordinary citizens alone. He played a video showing masked gunmen standing on a rooftop as evidence. He said common protesters were fewer in number, while armed militants linked to Fitna Al Khawarij were present in significant numbers. He urged people to distance themselves from these elements and said the government would issue public appeals soon. He also alleged that anti-state groups were using women and children as human shields, and that misleading videos calling this a human rights movement were being spread on social media.
AJK police spokesperson DIG Irfan Kashfi said these armed individuals would be treated as militants, not peaceful protesters, given their possession of automatic weapons, M-4 rifles, AK-47s, and reportedly sniper rifles. He said one police official was killed and five others injured in recent clashes. One suspect, described as a foreign national acting as a sniper, was arrested in Rawalakot with a military-grade weapon in his possession. Kashfi said security forces were acting purely in self-defence and to protect the public, and assured citizens that militants would not be allowed to capture Rawalakot or any other area.
AJK Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore said the unrest had been planned for weeks and described the march toward Muzaffarabad during the elections as a scheme to trigger mass unrest. He appealed to the public to stay away from the protesters, alleging they were using civilians as human shields.
The JAAC was declared a banned organisation on June 5 after weeks of protests demanding the abolition of 12 reserved refugee seats in the AJK assembly. Authorities have since arrested many of its leaders and placed 147 activists under anti-terrorism watch.
