There are reports that several workers of the Jammu Kashmir Joint Public Action Committee were killed and hundreds injured during the crackdown by Pakistani security forces in Poonch district of Pakistan-administered Kashmir on the night of June 7-8.
Commissioner Poonch Sardar Waheed has said that six civilians and three policemen have been killed so far.
On the other hand, a police official has said on condition of anonymity that 6 civilians and 4 policemen have been confirmed dead, but the number is much higher.
According to local journalist Ajmal Shaheen, when he went to CMH Hospital to get the figures of the dead, the Rangers personnel present there returned him saying that their officers have gone out. Please give us your phone number and we will inform you. It has been 5 am to 12 noon now, but no one has told us anything.
Ajmal Shaheen further said that the number of dead according to eyewitnesses is more than four dozen, but it cannot be said definitively as many people are still missing and no one has been contacted.
An X-ray technician affiliated with the health department working in another private clinic said on condition of anonymity that the army medical personnel had taken control of the CMH Hospital late last night. There was no local staff there and no one was allowed inside.
However, at present, Section 144 has been imposed by the district administration in Rawalakot and Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and the Salai administration is announcing on loudspeakers that keep your children at home, Section 144 is being imposed outside.
On the other hand, the Joint Public Action Committee has announced a long march on June 9.
The protest intensified when the committee’s core members were returning from a conference held at Khaigalla, eight kilometers away from Rawalakot, when masked men allegedly opened fire at the Birmang bridge, in which Jack’s core member was injured and his close associate Shahzeb Habib was killed. Core member Umar Nazir said in a video message that FC and PSI attacked us, as a result of which our associate Shahzeb Habib was martyred.
After Shahzeb’s death, the committee workers took his body from CMH Hospital and staged a protest sit-in in front of CMH. An FIR has been registered against Shahzeb’s killers in the name of unknown persons, however, the heirs say that the body will not be buried until the killers are arrested.
Locals say that the shelling by the local police was still ongoing till 11 am on June 8.
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