UPDATED STORY: DEMONSTRATING TAILORS MOB HEAVILY LATHICHARGED IN MIRPUR-AJK:

English , Kashmir - آزاد جموں کشمیر , Snippets , / Sunday, March 16th, 2025

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Altaf Hamid Rao.
MIRPUR ( AJK ): March 15 : Riot police here on Saturday resorted to heavy lathicharge a demonstrating mob of local Tailors who had taken to street agitation at central Shaheed chowk here on Saturday against the,arrest of some of their colleagues besides sealing of five Tailoring shops for overcharging the cost of stitching of coming Eid clothes from masses against those fixed by the local administration.

Our Special Jammu and Kashmir state Correspondent Altaf Hamid Rao reports from Mirpur that the protestant Tailors taken out a procession besides holding a protest rally raising full throated slogans against the AJK government and the local District Administration disrupting the routine vehicular traffic and the movement of the general public at the busiest roads leading to Central Shaheed chowk.

Five protstant tailors were arrested from the scene of the protest demonstration but were later released in the Saturday evening, city police station sources told this Correspondent.

Heavy police contingent led by duty magistrate -‘Assistant Commissioner Zahid Hussain rushed the site to control the situation to disperse the mob which took serious turn when the uncontrolled protesters caused the disruption of the routine movement of the traffic.

Senior Journalist and the Deputy Mayor of Mirpur Muuhammad Ramzan Chughtai also suffered the police lathi charge reportedly during the performance of his professional duty as a journalist for coverage of the tailors protest demonstration and the police violence against the protestant Tailors crowd.

President of his own faction of Markazi Anjuman e Tajaran Mirpur Chaudhry Muhammad Naeem also came in the range of the police lathicharge suffering the lathicharge when he rushed the shaheed chowk which had turned into the epicentre of the reported alleged police violence.

Unveiling the details of the reported police-nob clah at Shaheed chowk in Mirpur AJK, an official handout issued by the local District administration on Saturday said “Following recent curtail in electricity tarrif in Azad Jammu Kashmir, Tehsil Administration Mirpur fixed the rates of sewing the clothes in the holy month of Ramadan at par with the rates of clothes stitching in all other districts of Azad Jammu Kashmir and the adjoining areas of Punjab province.

According to which, the rates of stitching of simple suit of cloths was fixed as Rs. 1300, double stitching is Rs. 1400 and gum stitching is Rs. 1500. The rates of sewing clothes issued by Tehsil administration were at par with all the districts of Azad Kashmir.

The administration took the action against the tailors on receiving public complaint that despite the rate list issued by the administration as the tailoring shop owners are not implementing and charging their own-created heavy rates which the public termed an abuse of the official orders about implementation of the fixed rates.

On which the Tehsil administration took notice of public complaints and fined and arrested the violators. Later, the delegation of tailoring met the Deputy Commissioner of Mirpur and expressed their concerns on the rate list, on which the Deputy Commissioner directed the delegation to negotiate with the Assistant Commissioner of Mirpur and settle their demands within three days, but the tailoring owners refused to negotiate and refused to accept the rate set by the administration.

Tehsildar Mirpur Imran Yousaf Ch consulted the representatives of the tailoring shops on the evening of March 14, 2025, on which the representatives of Tailoring refused to negotiate and threatened to block the roads of Chowk Shaheed by protesting on March 15, 2025.

On March 15, Saturday Assistant Commissioner Mirpur Zahid Hussain again held talks with the protestors at Chowk Shaheedan, which werec failed.

At the same time, the protesting tailoring shops owners blocked the roads, on which the tehsil administration and the police moved to disperse the protesters strategically, the handout added