Pakistan opens talks with Kashmir protesters as PM calls for calm after deadly clashes

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ISLAMABAD (AP) — The death toll after violent clashes between security forces and demonstrators in Pakistan-administered Kashmir rose to nine on Thursday as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sent a delegation to the region’s capital for talks with the protest leaders, officials said.

In a statement, Sharif appealed for calm and asked the police to exercise restraint. He also said his government was committed to addressing public grievances in Kashmir.

Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, a minister in Sharif’s Cabinet, wrote on X that talks with representatives of the Awami Action Committee were underway in Muzaffarabad.

At the same time local authorities reported a convoy of buses and cars was seen moving toward Muzaffarabad, the regional capital, for another mass protest.

The developments came a day after thousands of demonstrators armed with sticks and guns attacked police officers deployed in various parts of the region to keep roads open and guard government buildings.

Video footage posted online showed violent clashes between protesters belonging to the Awami Action Committee and the police.

The violence began earlier this week after an alliance of several groups launched protests demanding subsidies on food, electricity and other services.

Chaudhry Anwarul Haq, the region’s prime minister, said Wednesday that his administration had agreed to accept 36 of the alliance’s 38 demands — including cheaper wheat, reduced electricity tariffs, and local governance reforms — but he said the group had refused to call off its agitation and instead continued violent demonstrations.

According to a government statement, at least nine people, including three police officers, have been killed in the clashes. More than 150, mostly policemen, have also been injured, it said, as authorities transported some of the critically wounded officers to Islamabad hospitals.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi visited the capital’s main hospital on Thursday to meet officers wounded in the clashes.

A government statement said Naqvi praised the “courage and restraint” of the officers and directed doctors to provide the best medical treatment to them. He said that “no one will be allowed to take the law into their own hands,” adding that some violent elements were trying to destabilize the region “at the behest of enemies.”