MUZAFFARABAD, March 21: Traders observed a complete strike here on Thursday, demanding an end to loadshedding and reconstruction and development in the AJK capital.

The strike turned violent when protesters and police clashed leaving dozens of people, including police personnel, wounded. The protesters pelted police personnel with stones and police fired teargas shells.

The injured included a deputy superintendent of police, official sources said.

Police said 14 people had been taken into custody, but the protesters claimed that the figure was higher. Some activists of the PML-N, which had supported the strike call given by the Markazi Anjuman-i-Taajran, were also detained.

According to Shaukat Nawaz Mir, chairman of the association, the strike call had been given to demand Azad Kashmir’s exemption from ‘merciless’ loadshedding by Wapda.

A team comprising two ministers and heads of three civic bodies had tried to persuade the traders to call off the strike and some government-backed trade leaders had disassociated themselves from it, but the town was completely shut. Even street vendors observed the strike and traffic remained thin.

The protesters had indicated that they would hold a sit-in in front of the Legislative Assembly. But when their procession reached near Sathra, about 700 yards ahead of Bank Road, it was stopped by heavy police contingents.

An official spokesman said in a statement that loadshedding was a national issue and the government had been holding talks with the authorities concerned to reduce its duration.

He claimed that talks with traders had almost succeeded, but some “anti-government elements” instigated the protesters to go ahead with the strike, creating the law and order problem.

Barrister Iftikhar Gillani, a PML-N legislator from Muzaffarabad, said the government had mishandled the situation, resulting in injuries to so many people.