AJK administration hopeful remaining JAAC protesters will disperse peacefully
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MUZAFFARABAD: The Poonch administration in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) is hopeful that the proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) protesters will disperse peacefully after a sizeable number of people gathered again after Friday prayers. The regional administration and the JAAC have been at odds over various issues, most notably the committee’s demand to abolish the 12 seats in the region’s Legislative Assembly that are reserved for refugees from Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir who settled in mainland Pakistan after 1947. However, an official of the district administration claimed that fewer than 2,000 people were present after dusk. He added that participants in the gathering remain uncertain as they cannot march towards Rawalakot, with all routes leading to the city blocked by law enforcement. “When their strength was around 15,000 to 16,000, even then they could not move towards Rawalakot. We have sent a message to JAAC leader Umar Nazir to call off the demonstration unconditionally,” said Poonch Divisional Commissioner Waheed Khan. Khan expressed hope that those remaining would disperse later tonight. He also said a law enforcement camp would be established at the gathering site by tomorrow morning. Supporters disperse at midnight All three gatherings of the activists and supporters of JAAC at the fringes of Rawalakot dispersed and their participants returned to their respective areas shortly after midnight, officials said on Friday. The development reportedly came after indications that authorities had planned a major operation to uproot the protesters, who had converged from various districts on the eastern outskirts of Rawalakot in Poonch district. “There is not a single participant at any of the three sit-in sites on the outskirts of Rawalakot. All have unconditionally surrendered before the state and have returned, rather fled, back to their respective areas,” Poonch Divisional Commissioner Sardar Waheed Khan told Dawn in the early hours of Friday