One Rangers personnel was martyred on Tuesday and another injured after armed members belonging to the banned Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) allegedly attacked security forces responding to reports of indiscriminate firing near a bus terminal in Rawalakot, according to police.
“Having failed to rally public support in preceding weeks, proscribed organization JAAC resorted to indiscriminate armed firing early morning so as to put the blame on security forces in the general area of the bus terminal, Rawalakot,” read a statement issued by the AJK Police.
Sharing aerial footage of the incident, it claimed the armed individuals had engaged police and security forces when they moved to intervene. “One brave security personal has embraced shahadat and one was injured in firing,” it said, adding the “use of explosives” by the banned group has “also been confirmed.”
The police statement said it was “imperative” to clear the area of the JAAC, as it accused the group of holding the local public hostage at gunpoint. “Today’s events on the morning of July 14 vividly demonstrate the proscribed JAAC’s violent nature, their intentions, including their armed anarchists,” it added.
The JAAC, declared a proscribed organization by the AJK government on June 5, has been staging a sit-in at Rawalakot for the past month. It has announced it would commence a march on Muzaffarabad on July 15 and has urged locals to join it in large numbers. Chief among the JAAC’s demands is the abolition of 12 reserved seats for refugees who migrated from India-held Kashmir after 1947. The government insists this can only be accomplished through legislation and cannot be brought about through force.