Youth killed as PaJK protests erupt; indefinite shutdown called

MUZAFFARABAD: A young man was reported killed in Dadyal, and a policeman critically wounded in separate firing incidents on Sunday as the months-long confrontation between the government and the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) again spilled into violence in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir (PaJK).

As protests, road blockades and clashes were reported from different areas, the JAAC announced an indefinite shutdown, shutter down and wheel-jam strike across all three divisions, calling on people to remain off the roads and keep businesses closed until the movement's demands are addressed.

The committee said security forces opened fire in Dadyal during the night and again on Sunday morning, killing a young man identified as Chaudhry Usman and injuring two others. It alleged that local residents took possession of Usman's body from the security forces, while the wounded were later detained from the hospital.

The circumstances surrounding the firing and the casualty figures could not be independently verified. Authorities had not issued a detailed account of the Dadyal incident till the time of filing this report.

In Kotli district, meanwhile, police confirmed that Constable Abdul Rauf was shot and critically wounded during unrest at Kala Dab near Charhoi.

According to police, protesters had blocked the road and disrupted traffic. When a police party arrived to clear the route, police alleged that shots were fired directly at its personnel, hitting Rauf in the chest.

The wounded constable was shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital in Mirpur, where police said his condition remained critical. A case has been registered and police announced search operations to arrest those responsible.

Against this backdrop of fresh violence, JAAC member Sardar Umar Nazir Kashmiri announced that the protest would continue indefinitely across Muzaffarabad, Poonch and Mirpur divisions. He appealed to traders, transporters and the general public to observe the shutdown until the committee's demands were met.

The latest escalation marks a return to street confrontation after several months of protests, negotiations, arrests and intermittent violence over the committee's charter of demands.

The JAAC movement initially emerged around electricity tariffs, subsidised wheat, governance and political representation. The government has maintained that 37 of its 38 demands have been addressed, but the committee disputes that claim and says several commitments made during previous negotiations remain unimplemented.

The confrontation has since widened beyond the original economic demands, with JAAC accusing the authorities of arrests, restrictions and excessive use of force, while the government increasingly portrays violence surrounding the protests as a security issue.

Pakistan Minister Press Conference

That divide sharpened further on Sunday when Pakistan's Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry held a press conference in Islamabad and alleged that investigators had uncovered an illegal network supplying weapons from Afghanistan to Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Chaudhry presented audio recordings and video clips which he said had been subjected to forensic examination. He alleged that individuals connected with the protest movement had links with people involved in the illegal movement of weapons.

The recordings, videos and the government's interpretation of them could not be independently verified.

The minister said the investigation began with the arrest of a man accused of obtaining weapons from Afghanistan and transporting them through Pakistan's tribal areas into Pakistan-administered Kashmir over several years.

According to Chaudhry, the arrest led investigators to three more suspects and eventually to people allegedly maintaining contacts with some prominent figures associated with the Action Committee.

He named Waqar Hamid, Mohammad Ali and Ammar Sohail among those arrested in connection with protest-related incidents and alleged that investigators had uncovered links between them and JAAC figures.

Chaudhry also alleged that a government employee facilitated the movement of illegal weapons and that attempts were subsequently made to portray one of the suspects as mentally unfit to protect him from prosecution. He claimed efforts were made to obtain medical certificates carrying earlier dates.

The minister also played a clip from a speech by Sardar Aman Khan and sought to draw a connection between the timing of protests in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and political agitation by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

He argued that similarities in protest dates and activities required investigation and alleged that, after attempts to influence the electoral process failed, unrest was being used to push the election results out of public focus.

These allegations have not been established before a court.

JAAC has previously rejected government attempts to link its movement with militancy or illegal weapons. It maintains that its campaign is a political and civil-rights movement and has challenged the authorities to produce evidence of criminal activity before a competent court.

The committee was proscribed by the AJK government under the Anti-Terrorism Act in June following an earlier round of deadly unrest, a decision that JAAC strongly contested.

Cycle of Shutdown

Sunday's events now threaten to push the territory back into the cycle of shutdowns, road blockades, arrests and violence that has repeatedly disrupted normal life during the past several months.

The indefinite nature of the latest strike is particularly significant. Unlike earlier protests announced for specified periods, JAAC has not set a date for businesses to reopen or public transport to resume.

With a civilian reported killed in Dadyal and a policeman critically wounded in Kotli on the first day of the renewed confrontation, attention has now shifted to whether the government responds with further security measures or attempts to reopen negotiations with the protest leadership.

For residents across the three divisions, however, Sunday's developments have already brought the political confrontation back onto the streets, with no immediate indication of when the latest shutdown will end.