JAAC wanted to spread chaos in AJK society: Kashmiri leaders

Sardar Atiq says protests caused loss of Rs3b to Rs4b Azad Jammu and Kashmir leaders said on Saturday that the Joint Awami Action Committee, which had been declared a banned organization, wanted to spread chaos in society. Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, two-time prime minister of AJK Sardar Atiq Ahmad said that the situation had been prevented from going bad to worse. He informed that a loss of Rs3 billion to Rs4 billion had been caused, while 17 people had lost their lives. He, however, categorically said that those spreading mischief would not be spared. Speaking on the occasion, another Kashmiri leader, belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Shah Ghulam Qadir said that although there were political differences in AJK, still Pakistan’s stability was a priority. He said that a time had come when extremists started attacking hospitals. Last few weeks have remained turbulent in AJK as protests were held under the auspices of JAAC, which presented to the government a set of demands. However, later these protests began to lose their intensity as people stopped showing the enthusiasm which they showed earlier. Hence, life has returned to normalcy in most of the areas of AJK, including capital Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Bhimber and Mirpur, as people have resumed their businesses and traffic started plying on roads again.