Muzaffarabad | Pakistan

MUZAFFARABAD: Shops and markets were largely shut and vehicular traffic remained minimal in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), on Tuesday as the newly proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) observed a strike. Meanwhile, AJK Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore urged a return to the negotiating table in a bid to end the tensions that have gripped the region over the past few days. During the day, Muzaffarabad’s streets were deserted, with hardly any vehicles on the roads. Riot police and paramilitary personnel remained deployed in the city. However, no demonstrations were witnessed in the capital. Meanwhile, reports from Mirpur said that hundreds of people had gathered in the town’s Quaid-i-Azam stadium. “Shops are closed here and traffic is off the roads,” local journalist Sajjad Jarral told Dawn by telephone. Witnesses in Kotli said that while the area observed a complete shutter-down and wheel-jam strike, hundreds of people led by JAAC core member Imtiaz Aslam were heading to...

MUZAFFARABAD - At least two people died and several others injured after protesters clashed with police in Muzaffarabad on Monday.

At least six members of a family were feared dead after a massive landslide buried their home in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) Muzaffarabad district on Thursday, while torrential rains claimed the lives of two more women in Bagh and Sudhnoti districts, officials said. Monsoon rains, which fall across the region from June to September every year, continue to lash many parts of the country. Starting in late June, Monsoon rains have wreaked havoc across the country in the past month by triggering deadly floods, landslides and displacement, particularly in vulnerable, poorly drained, or densely populated areas. At least 313 people, including 142 children, have died and 740 others have been injured in flash floods and torrential rains that have battered several parts of Pakistan since late June, according to updated daily data from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The incident occurred in Nariyah Behak, part of Sarli Sacha village northwest of Muzaffarabad, where a cloudburst sent a wall of wate...

Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry announced on Tuesday the successful dismantling of a major network involved in the sexual exploitation of children, operating out of Muzaffarabad.