ISLAMABAD: Awami Workers Party (AWP) has condemned the recent crackdown on protesters in Azad Kashmir, expressing solidarity with the Kashmiri people in their struggle for basic rights.

“The AWP leadership is deeply concerned about the deployment of paramilitary forces in AJK and the subsequent use of repressive tactics, including the arbitrary arrest of hundreds of political activists. Such actions only serve to incite further unrest among the populace,” said a statement issued by AWP President Akhtar Hussain, General Secretary Dr Bakhshal Thalho, Jammu and Kashmir Awami Workers Party Chairman Nisar Shah and AWP Gilgit-Baltistan chairman Baba Jan.

The leaders denounced the use of force by law enforcement agencies against demonstrators in Muzaffarabad and Mirpur divisions on Friday and Saturday, which resulted in injuries and heightened tensions in various other districts.

“It is distressing to see the suppression of legitimate demands, particularly those related to the unjust taxation on electricity bills and the lack of access to essential resources. Federal and state authorities have failed to meet local needs despite substantial generation of electricity from power houses in AJK,” it stated.

“The AWP calls on the state government to respect the fundamental right to peaceful protest, immediately withdraw paramilitary forces from the region, release all political detainees, and drop false charges levied against them. Furthermore, the AWP stands in solidarity with the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee that has been leading a rights movement to protest ‘unjust’ taxes levied on electricity bills and observed a shutterdown strike for the same reason in August last year,” the statement said.

“The party leadership supports their rightful demands for equitable access to electricity at production cost, end to prolonged power loadshedding, provision of flour at subsidised rates as well as other socio-economic rights. The AWP reiterates its principled stand that the rights and aspirations of the people of AJK including the right to self-determination and ownership of their resources must be respected and upheld at all costs,” it added.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2024