MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 24 A rally by two nationalist organisations against “conspiracies to convert Gilgit-Baltistan into a Pakistani province” was baton charged by the police after the demonstrators insisted to proceed beyond a certain point here on Saturday.

Nearly a dozen activists of the hardline National Students Federation (NSF) and National Awami Party (NAP), which advocate complete independence of Kashmir from both India and Pakistan, were injured due to the use of batons while a police official also received bruises from stones pelted by the demonstrators, witnesses and official sources said. Led by the NSF president Raja Sabah and NAP president Liaquat Hayat, the rally began from Upper Adda with its participants vociferously chanting their pet slogans like 'No to division of Kashmir', and 'Jeeway Kashmir meri jan, Jammu, Gilgit Baltistan.' (Long live Kashmir my love Jammu, Gilgit and Baltistan).

They were also carrying a banner which read that “the State of Jammu and Kashmir was an indivisible entity.”

When the rally reached near Sathra Mor, it was stopped by the police as Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider was attending a function in connection with AJK's Foundation Day at the Central Press Club, hardly 500 yards ahead of that spot.

Claiming that they had already been granted permission to reach the Legislative Assembly building to stage a symbolic sit-in there, the demonstrators tried to break through the police cordon but had to encounter baton charging which eventually led to their dispersal.

The charged activists also pelted the police and some vehicles with stones. Police alleged that the stone pelting caused damage to at least four vehicles, including a military pick-up as well as the building of a private bank.

A spokesman for NSF alleged that police personnel had themselves damaged these vehicles so as to frame them for their pro-Kashmir stand. The police also knocked and badly damaged three motorbikes of our activists besides snatching their mobiles, he added.SHO City Police Station Rashid Habib told Dawn that they had arrested four NSF activists namely Kamran Baig (resident of Muzaffarabad), Sardar Talha (Pallandari), Mohammad Aqib (Rawalakot) and Mohammad Farooq (Haveli).

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Muzaffarabad Chaudhry Imtiaz Ahmed said the administration had already told the organisers that the rally would not be allowed to move beyond Sathra Mor during the VVIP function but they had violated the understanding.

According tot him, the prime minister had also sent a message to the leaders of the rally to hold their programme peacefully instead of creating a situation of confrontation but to no avail.

The NSF spokesman rejected the official account and said pictorial record of the rally bore testimony that how mercilessly the police had beaten the demonstrators.

“Our organisation will observe a 'black day' across AJK on Monday to condemn the persecution of its workers,” he said.