Dawn
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18:30 Oct 03, 2025
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry on Friday night announced that the final round of negotiations with the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) had begun and an agreement was slated to be signed soon, in a bid to end ongoing unrest in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Talks between the JAAC, the AJK government and federal ministers over elite privileges and reserved seats for refugees broke down last week. Rival groups have since staged protests, trading blame for violence that marred what began as a largely peaceful movement in AJK. Fierce clashes between protesters and law enforcers have left at least 10 people dead and scores critically injured in the territory. A fresh round of talks between a high-level government delegation and a civil society alliance was held yesterday, followed by another one today. Chaudhry, who is in Muzaffarabad as part of the federal government’s delegation, took to X and stated that matters between the two sides had been settled. “[The] final agreement is expected to...