Moment of silence: AJK assembly honours victims of terrorism

Local cable operators say will not air Indian channels

MUZAFFARABAD: Rich tributes were paid to the martyrs of Quetta Police Training Centre during the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly (AJKLA) session on Wednesday. The assembly session, chaired by Deputy Speaker Farooq Tahir, started with a prayer for people martyred in Quetta, along the Line of Control (LoC), and on the working boundary.

MLAs from the treasury and opposition benches termed the attack a bid to destabilise Pakistan. “The Quetta attack was the brainchild of Pakistan’s enemies who will never succeed in their nefarious designs to weaken our country.

From Quetta to Kashmir the whole nation is united against terrorism,” said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) parliamentary leader and assembly member Abdul Majid Khan.

Khan further said that the people of AJK are with the people of Balochistan at this difficult time. Later, the opposition parties in the assembly – Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (AJKMC), and PTI – decided to boycott the assembly session over “not being given proper time” in the house to speak on different issues. “The government and the assembly speaker are trying their best to push us against a wall as we are not being given proper time to speak and shed light on issues related to our constituencies and the rest of AJK,” said a spokesman for the joint opposition parties. The spokesman further said that from October 27 (today), “we will not be part of any assembly session, as we are not being allowed to speak on issues related the whole of AJK.”

Cutting cable

Meanwhile, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Cable Operators Association (AJKCOA) on Wednesday held a rally against human rights violations in Indian Administered Kashmir.

The protesters marched from Gharipan Chowk to the press club, shouting slogans against India and in favour of the liberation struggle of Kashmiris.

Banners carried by the protesters were inscribed with slogans like ‘Go India Go’, ‘Stop human rights violations in Kashmir’, and ‘Give the right of self-determination to the people of Indian-Administered Kashmir’.

AJKCOA President Khurram Shahzad announced that they will not air Indian channels on cable as a protest against Indian brutalities in which more than 100 young people have been killed
since July 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2016.