PoK: One police officer killed, over 100 injured in clashes during protest

Islamabad: One police officer was killed and more than 100 people, mostly policemen, injured in violent clashes between security forces and protesters agitating against high prices of wheat flour and electricity in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, media reports said on Sunday.

The disputed region witnessed clashes on Saturday between the police and activists of a rights movement amid a wheel-jam and

shutter-down strike across the territory, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Mirpur Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kamran Ali told Dawn.com that sub-inspector Adnan

Qureshi succumbed to a gunshot wound in the chest in the town of Islamgarh, where he was deployed along with other police personnel to stop a rally for Muzaffarabad via Kotli and Poonch districts under the banner of the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC).

The JAAC, which has traders at the forefront in most parts of the state,

has been seeking the provision of electricity as per hydropower generation cost in the region, subsidised wheat flour and an end to the privileges of the elite class.

The regional government called in the Rangers and a heavy contingent of policemen to stop the demonstrations.

Mobile phone and internet services were suspended in different parts of the PoK on Sunday

including Bhimber and Bagh Towns, Geo News reported. In Mirpur, all the mobile networks and internet service have been suspended, it added.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has called an emergency meeting

related to the situation in the region at the President’s House on Monday, said sources.

They added that the president instructed stakeholders to bring proposals to resolve the issue.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday said that he was “deeply concerned” about the situation in PoK.