Death of JKLF activist sparks protests in PoK

Srinagar: An activist of pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), who was critically injured in police firing during a protest demonstration in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) last week, has succumbed in a hospital in Pakistani capital Islamabad.

The deceased has been identified as Nayeem Butt, a resident of PoK’s Rawlakote. His death has sparked off fresh protests by the JKLF in the area and renewal by it of its demand for independent Kashmir. “His martyrdom has only strengthened our resolve for sovereign, independent Kashmir, a country of our own free of Indian and Pakistani hegemony,” said a JKLF spokesman.

Security across the PoK particularly Rawlakote has been beefed up in view of heightening tensions. The JKLF has announced that Butt’s funeral prayer would be offered twice-first in main town of Rawlakote and then in his ancestral village where he would be laid to rest later during the day on Thursday.  

On March 16, clashes had erupted between irate crowds and the police near the Line of Control (LoC) in PoK, leaving several people injured.

A report received here from across the de facto border had said that the PoK police and other law enforcing agencies confronted a huge procession of people heading towards the LoC and used force to disperse it. Bhat was hit but a bullet during the protests. During the clashes, the violent protesters had torched a police check-post near the LoC.