ISLAMABAD: Police in Azad Kashmir on Saturday said armed members of the banned Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) attacked a police checkpost in Bagh district, killing a paramilitary constable.
According to the office of the Deputy Inspector General of Police for the Poonch region, armed attackers opened indiscriminate fire on the Kopra Police checkpost at around 6:35 a.m. Police said Constable Rahim Gul, a resident of Karak, sustained gunshot wounds and was killed in the attack.
The JAAC was banned by the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government in June under anti-terrorism laws. Police said one of the attackers was killed in retaliatory firing. They said two hand grenades, a Kalashnikov rifle, ammunition and a dagger were recovered from the slain man, whose identity was still being established.
The police statement warned that action would be taken under the law against those challenging the authority of the state and individuals involved in attacks on law-enforcement personnel.
A major dispute between the JAAC and the Azad Kashmir authorities concerns 12 seats reserved in the regional assembly for refugees from Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) who live elsewhere in Pakistan.
The seats were established to provide political representation to Kashmiris who were displaced from IIOJK and subsequently settled in other parts of Pakistan.
The AJK Supreme Court also ruled in June that the seats were constitutionally protected unless the relevant constitutional provisions were amended.
The JAAC opposes the arrangement, arguing that it gives excessive political influence to people living outside Azad Kashmir, and has called for the reserved seats to be abolished.
Meanwhile, the Azad Kashmir government has rejected allegations by rights groups and the JAAC that authorities killed protesters during the unrest that has continued over the past three months.
