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Political and human rights organizations have invoked a long march and called for a sit-in on May 11 to raise the issues faced by the PoK locals in Muzaffarabad,Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
The United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) and Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) in a joint statement released previously announced that the march will raise issues like skyrocketing inflation, severe unemployment, revocation of subsidies on wheat and flour, unjustified load shedding, exploitations of PoK's natural resources and special and unjust privileges being given to the civil bureaucracy in PoK. Stressing that people have not received their wages and pensions, Amjad Ayub Mirza, a PoK activist said, "And now to sabotage the sit-in, the Pakistani administration has ordered the puppet PM of PoK Chaudhry Anwarul Haq to issue a request for the deployment of Punjab province police and frontal corps in PoK. The PoK activists quoted the PM's letter and said that a demand for 600 police personnel and six platoons for the Civil Armed Force(CAF) has been placed to avoid any law and order situation in PoK and protect Chinese nationals, notably after the recent blasts relating to Chinese nationals in April. Mirza, while reacting to the matter, said that the people of PoK have been suffering from a humanitarian crisis for more than four years, and the problems have aggravated every year and now are aggravating every month. Further, he stated that "of course, the Pakistani state is scared of our people because they have been using all kinds of excuses to suppress our civil disobedience. Now the people are angry and they say that they are going to observe an indefinite sit-in in at legislative assembly Muzafarabad." Last week, Mirza also said that a camp of peaceful protesters from JAAC was aimed to raise awareness in Muzaffarabad. "Now in the backlash, the people have clearly stated that they will not tolerate any violence from the state. Furthermore, the people of PoK have raised demands for the PM of PoK to resign, and the recently organised visit of the PM of PoK trying to pacify the aggression of traders resulted in a total shutterdown strike," he said. Earlier, the top leadership of the UKPNP expressed serious concern over the recent militarization of PoK in a joint statement released on Sunday. In their statement, top UKPNP leaders voiced their apprehension regarding Pakistan's decision to deploy defence personnel, including rangers, Quick Response Force (QRF), Crime Branch, and Pakistani Police, in the PoK region. The UKPNP leaders further asserted that these tactics constitute a suppression strategy employed by the Pakistani Defense Agencies, aimed at quelling protests scheduled by the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) and the People's Right Movement in PoK. (ANI)
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