A Rangers personnel embraced martyrdom and another was wounded when armed members of the banned Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) opened fire on security forces responding to reports of firing in Rawalakot, security sources said on Tuesday.
Sources said that armed groups belonging to the banned JAAC opened indiscriminate fire in a civilian area near the Matial Maira bus terminal early in the morning.
The AJK Police said the outlawed organisation, having failed to mobilise public support in recent weeks, resorted to the firing in an attempt to shift the blame onto security forces. The incident was captured through aerial surveillance, police said.
When police, accompanied by security forces, moved to restore law and order, they came under attack from the armed assailants.
Rangers personnel deployed to support the police also reached the scene, where one Rangers official embraced martyrdom and another sustained injuries in the exchange of fire.
The AJK Police further confirmed that explosives were also used during the violence. It said an operation was under way to clear the area of armed JAAC members and protesters, alleging that local residents had been held hostage at gunpoint.
Police described the day's events as evidence of the banned organisation's violent conduct and said its armed members had resorted to anarchic tactics during the attack.
The AJK government on June 5 declared JAAC a proscribed organisation under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), saying the group was engaged in terrorism.
The ban was imposed days ahead of the banned outfit's planned June 9 protest seeking the abolition of 12 seats in the AJK reserved for refugees from Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) who migrated to Pakistan after 1947.
