The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Home Department has declared the Joint Awami Action Committee a banned organisation under the region’s anti-terrorism law.
According to a Home Department notification, groups operating as the “Jammu Kashmir Action Committee” and “Joint Awami Action Committee” have been placed in the First Schedule of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Anti-Terrorism Act 2014.
The notification said the President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir approved the decision. It formally listed the organisation and its alternate names under Section 12 of the law.
The Home Department alleged that sufficient material showed involvement in activities that could undermine peace, public safety and law and order in the region. It also accused the group of spreading fear, promoting hatred and creating insecurity.
The department included alternate names in the notification to stop the organisation from operating under different titles.
Read: AJK Mobile Internet Suspension Ordered Before June 9 Strike
Copies of the notification have been sent to the Ministry of Interior, the President, Prime Minister, Chief Secretary and other senior AJK officials.
The Home Department also issued directives to Deputy Commissioners, Senior Superintendents of Police, the Counter Terrorism Department, Special Branch units and divisional administrations in Muzaffarabad, Poonch and Mirpur.
The move followed an AJK government warning to JAAC over its planned June 9 activity. A government spokesperson said peaceful protest was a democratic right, but blocking roads, paralysing public life or disrupting the electoral process would invite legal action.
