ISLAMABAD – The opposition alliance Tehreek-e-Tahafuz-e-Ayin-e-Pakistan (TTAP) on Monday alleged that police prevented them from travelling to Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) while they were on their way to Rawalakot to meet the leadership of proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) to find a negotiated solution to the ongoing crisis in the region.
A delegation of the opposition parties including opposition leaders in the National Assembly, and Senate, Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Raja Nasir Abbas, were stopped by Islamabad Police near Sihala area on the outskirts of Islamabad, said TTAP Vice Chairman Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar. Former prime minister and chief of his own Awaam Pakistan party Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former special assistant to prime minister on health Dr Zafar Mirza also accompanied them besides other politicians.
Addressing a press conference here along with other opposition leaders, ex-senator Khokhar said they had planned to meet with protestors holding a sit-in in Rawalakot for the past many days and the leadership of the JAAC and hear their grievances. “We want a solution to the crisis through dialogue,” he said.
Khokhar alleged that Islamabad Police equipped with armoured vehicles and prison vans stopped them by establishing a checkpost and did not allow them to enter the boundary of AJK. He said the police had no answer except to say that higher authorities had ordered them not to allow the opposition leadership to go there. “We held a sit-in there, which caused mile-long queues of vehicles and troubles for commuters,” he said, adding that the situation forced them to return to Islamabad.
Speaking on the occasion, the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Achakzai said they had decided to play the role of mediation on the request of Kashmir-based organizations and human rights activists. He added that they had conveyed to powers-that-be to allow them to visit AJK to find a solution to the matter.
Earlier this month, violent clashes broke out in the region after outlawed JAAC gave a protest call demanding abolishing seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees in the AJK Legislative Assembly, and elite privileges. The JAAC leadership and its supporters had been holding a major protest sit-in in Rawalakot.
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