Protests triggered in PoJK as govt fails to impose negotiated terms with locals
Oct 11, 2024
Glasgow [Scotland], October 11 : The members of the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) organised protests and an awareness campaign in the Bagh area of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) demanding the imposition of the agreement negotiated between JAAC and the PoJK administration.
Hundreds of people who had joined the JAAC protest also demanded the dropping of all charges filed against the JAAC activist by the PoJK government, Amjad Ayub Mirza claimed in a statement.
In his statement, Mirza claimed that the people of Pakistani-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) have come out in droves again.
This awareness conference aimed to make the local population aware of the decisions made by the Joint Awami Action Committee vis-a-vis the agreement that was signed between the government of PoJK, and the Joint Awami Action Committee on May 13, 2024.
Mirza, in his statement, claimed that, according to the agreement reached between the PoJK government and the members of the JAAC, the electricity bill tariff was supposed to be reduced, with more control over taxation and more control of the Joint Awami Action Committee regarding decision-making processes of the government of PoJK being promised.
"All of these were negotiated, however, immediately after the May agreement was signed, the POJK government began to arrest many activists who had participated in the long march of May 2024. This has created a lot of disillusionment among rank and file, and there were sporadic protests against these arrests," the activists stated.
While referring to the case of Ahmed Farhad, a Kashmiri poet and others who were abducted by Pakistani security forces and Asma Batool, who was harassed and taken to the police station and accused of blasphemy for sharing a poem on her Facebook page.
The activist stated, "Now the people of Pakistani-occupied Jammu and Kashmir feel left out, and they want to make a point that they exist, and protests have started again all over Pakistani-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. This conference is demanding that all the cases that have been registered against the activists of the Joint Awami Action Committee should be withdrawn. These cases existed for two years. Since the last two years, these cases have been filed in different police stations across the length and breadth of POJK."
