MUZAFFA RABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) witnessed violent clashes between police and activists of a rights movement during a wheel jam and shutter down strike across the territory on Saturday, martyring one police official andleavingover90 others injured.

The Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) had organised the rally seeking rights for people, including tax-free electricity, subsidised wheat flour, and abolition of privilegesfora certain class.

However, police arrested around 70 JAAC activists on Wednesday night, triggering clashes in Dadyal. The authorities on Saturday placed mounds of earth on arteries leading to Muzaffarabad, made more arrests, and prevented people from heading towards Muzaffarabad. Despite this, protesters and police clashed in Mirpur and Muzaffarabad divisions, leaving many injure d.

At least one person fell into the swollen Neelum River from a road near a fruit and vegetable market here, while trying to escape teargas shelling and baton-charge by police, footage showed.

In Mirpur district, Sub-Inspector Adnan Qureshi embraced martyrdom after sustaining gunshot wound in the town of Islamgarh where he was detailed along with other police personnel to stop a rally destined for Muzaffarabad.

Video clips showed policemen being overpowered and beaten up by protesters.

SSP Kotli Mir Muhammad Abid said in a statement that at least 78 policemen, including DSP Ilyas Janjua, and two revenue department officials had been injured in Rehaa`n Galli `as a result of attack on police personnel by the miscreants under the cover of protest, while another 19 policemen were injured at Sehnsa Baroiyan.

Doctors at DHQ Hospital in Kotli told Dawn that apart from the wounded policemen nineinjured protesters had also been brought to their facility for treatment.

SSP Abid said that some police officials had reportedly been injured in Doliya Jattan, but their names and number could not be ascertained immediately.

In Muzaffarabad, police resorted to teargas shelling and aerial firing in some neighbourhoods after being pelted with stones and bottles by the `miscreants,` leaving at least one police official injured by stones and bottles and a young boy injured by teargas shells.

In the capital`s Tarigabad neighbourhood, young boys trespassed on a government building and an under-construction private property, using building material and stones to block the Eastern Bypass and hurl at the police vehicles passing through it.

JAAC spokesperson Hafeez Hamdani clarified that the JAAC had nothing to do with violence, suggesting that elements had been planted to bring a bad name to the struggle for legitimate rights.

AJK Minister for Finance Abdul Majid Khan told a presser that the government had exercised maximum restraint and was ready fortalks to peacefully address all contentious issues.

However, regional heads of the two main coalition partners PML-N and PPP were silent on the situation.

Later, PML-N regional secretary general Chaudhry Tariq Farooq wrote on X (formerly Twitter), `If the powerful and responsible circles in Pakistan have any concern about the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, they should pay immediate attention [to the situation] before it`s too late.` Separately, ex-premier Raja Farooq Haider, who also belongs to the PML-N, urged the demonstrators to not take law into their hands.

Officials transferred Meanwhile, in a late-night development, Muzaffarabad Divisional Commissioner Masoodur Rehman was removed from office and made an officer on special duty. He was replaced by ex-commissioner and incumbent director general for (LG&RD)SardarAdnanKhurshid.

Similarly, DIG Muzaffarabad Yasin Qureshi was also replaced by DIG HQs Irfan Masood Kashfi, according to services secretary Zafar Mehmood.