Four cops martyred, 20 injured as AJK protest spirals
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• Two killed, dozens hurt as riot police use tear gas, batons to disperse protesters
• IGP terms attack on CMH ‘outright terrorism’
• AJK SC says changes to Constitution ‘not a concession to be wrested from govt’
MUZAFFARABAD: At least four policemen were martyred and 20 were injured after fierce clashes broke out with supporters of the newly-proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) in Rawlakot, police said on Sunday.
A statement issued on Sunday night by the office of AJK police chief Liaqat Ali Malik said four police personnel were martyred when demonstrators “attacked” CMH Rawalakot on Sunday.
The statement maintained the men had been shot by firearms and shotguns, terming it outright “terrorism” and vowing not to compromise on the safety of citizens and public peace.
Additionally, officials said that at least two people from among the protesters had lost their lives, while dozens were said to be injured. Locals fear that the toll could be much higher. The flow of information from AJK has been curtailed by the closure of mobile data services across the region.
Tensions flared in Rawalakot over the death of a trader, who was allegedly shot during a confrontation with law-enforcers on Friday night.
Initially, his family had announced his funeral would be held on Saturday, but they later changed their mind and brought the body back to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH), apparently for post-mortem examination, and deferred the funeral until Sunday.
The body was shifted to the hospital’s mortuary but a post-mortem examination was not conducted. In the meantime, scores of people continued a sit-in outside CMH.
According to witnesses, when a police party arrived to disperse the protesters, a charged group of demonstrators confronted them.
Riot police then resorted to baton charge and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the group. In response, the demonstrators pelted police with stones, but no one was hurt.
The family of the deceased man, meanwhile, declared they would not bury him until the home department notification, proscribing the JAAC, was withdrawn.
“Our son faces the allegation of being a terrorist. We will not bury [him] until the notification branding [JAAC] as a terrorist group is withdrawn,” a source quoted a member of his family as saying.
A senior administration official, who spoke to Dawn on condition of anonymity, said the sit-in outside the health facility was causing a great deal of inconvenience to patients, their families and other commuters. He said that the protesters had been asked to disperse peacefully, but to no avail.
The area had not been cleared of protesters until the filing of this report.
AJK SC’s opinion
Meanwhile, in its advisory opinion on a reference sent by AJK President Chaudhry Latif Akbar, the AJK Supreme Court has observed that any amendment in the region’s constitution was “not a concession to be wrested” from the government.
The reference dealt with the JAAC’s demand for the abolition of 12 refugee seats in the legislative assembly ahead of the July 27
The 12 seats are reserved for refugees from Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, who settled in mainland Pakistan after 1947. JAAC alleges that these seats were often used by mainstream Pakistani political parties to influence the formation of governments in Muzaffarabad.
The presidential reference had sought answers to five key questions over the constitutional status of the refugee seats, the legislature’s competence to introduce a fundamental constitutional amendment at the present stage, the constitutional limits of the rights of assembly and association, and the state’s obligation to protect the electoral process and reject extra-constitutional demands.
In the advisory opinion, dated June 6 and available with Dawn, AJK SC Chief Justice Raja Saeed Akram Khan held that the constitution of the AJK was the “supreme law” of the state and its provisions the “property of the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and of the whole Kashmiri people”.
“The amendment of the constitution is a solemn constitutional act, not a concession to be wrested from a government under duress,” the opinion declared.
“It can only be accomplished through the process the constitution itself prescribes, by an assembly possessed of the full democratic mandate of the people, after deliberation, consultation, and consensus-building,” the advisory opinion read.
The court’s opinion came a day after the region’s government proscribed the JAAC, days before the group is scheduled to stage a protest on June 9. The JAAC’s latest protest call centred around the highly contentious demand to abolish the 12 refugee seats in the region’s Legislative Assembly.
It has also been calling for economic reforms to lower energy prices and provide free healthcare.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said on Sunday that most of those demands had been met.
“It’s negative and false propaganda that the government hasn’t addressed the demands. Out of 38 demands, 35 have been addressed,” he told a press conference.
Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2026
