MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday released as many as 36 activists who were arrested for alleged rioting during a march towards the Line of Control (LoC) last weekend.

The ‘Azadi Long March’ called by a Sardar Mohammad Saghir-led faction of pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front had started its journey from Rawalakot on Sept 7 for Tetrinote village along the LoC, in the jurisdiction of Hajira tehsil, for a sit-in there to “condemn lockdown in occupied Kashmir”.

However, when heavy contingents of AJK police stopped the marchers at Dawarandi village, some 8km before Tetrinote, “in the interest of their safety”, the marchers resorted to stone pelting in violation of an undertaking their leaders had given to the administration that they would not go beyond the designated spot to avoid risk of Indian shelling, DIG Police Poonch Tahir Mehmood Qureshi had alleged.

According to him, stone pelting had left around 12 policemen injured, one of them critically, and four ambulances damaged.

Police had also lobbed teargas shells to disperse the crowd due to which over 20 activists had fallen unconscious for some time.

Sources said the detainees had started hunger strike in the lockup.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2019