MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 20: Dozens activists were injured in a clash between two groups of People’s Party Azad Kashmir chapter at a public meeting on Wednesday in the presence of senior party leaders, including PPP secretary-general Jahangir Badr.

The public meeting was organised by Sardar Manzoor Asim, a PPAJK leader, in Baloch town in the southern Sudhnoti District.

However, witnesses said while Mr Badr and PPAJK president Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, senior vice-president Chaudhry Mohammad Yasin and secretary-general Chaudhry Latif Akbar were on their way to the venue of public meeting, when a former PPAJK legislator Akhtar Hussain Rabbani “stopped them to attend a reception he had arranged for them.”

Mr Rabbani was expelled from PPAJK by slain PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto after complaints that he was working against the party interests.

He was also denied party ticket in July 2006. However, he contested elections independently and lost to the Muslim Conference’s candidate.

Witnesses said that Mr Rabbani later with his supporters went to the public meeting where he occupied the stage without invitation, causing pandemonium.

During the proceedings of the meeting, PPAJK president and secretary general criticised Mr Rabbani, saying “there was no room for the turncoats in the party.”

This led to a scuffle between the slogan-mongering workers of the rival groups. They pelted stones on each other, compelling the police to resort to charge baton which subsequently broke up the public meeting.

Muzaffarabad civic body head dies: Syed Tanvirul Hassan Gillani, administrator Municipal Corporation Muzaffarabad died due to cardiac arrest at Rawani village on Thursday. He was laid to rest at his native graveyard.

Azad Kashmir President Raja Zulqarnain Khan, Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, Parliamentary Kashmir Committee chairman Maulana Fazlur Rehman, ministers, legislators, government officials and a large people from all walks of life attended his funeral prayers.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman led the funeral prayers and paid tributes to the deceased in Rawani village along Muzaffarabad-Srinagar Road.

The 51-year old civic body head suffered heart attack at 12:30pm on Thursday at a reception he had hosted on behalf of citizens in the honour of visiting Kashmir Committee members at a local hotel.