Local administration and police on Sunday stopped participants of the ‘Peoples’ Freedom March’ under the aegis of pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) from heading towards Chakothi, a village near the Line of Control.
Witnesses said the authorities blocked Muzaffarabad-Srinagar highway by placing containers, barbed wires, electricity poles and mounds of earth when the protesters reached near Jiskool.
Muhammad Rafiq Dar, central spokesperson for the JKLF, said the march was a peaceful programme aimed at expressing solidarity with the besieged Kashmiris and drawing the attention of the international community towards the urgent need of an immediate and peaceful settlement to the long pending Kashmir issue. He said that his group did not want to engage in any kind of confrontation with the local law enforcement personnel. Dar urged the AJK administration to remove the containers so that the marchers could reach Chakothi, a village which is 3 kilometres before the Line of Control (LoC) but is overlooked by Indian gun positions atop lofty mountains across the divide. “I hope they will allow us carry on our peaceful march to the town of Chakothi,” he said. Leaders of the march had been invited by the administration for talks.