PoK: Activists throw electricity bills in river amid protest sit-ins

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Amid the ongoing protest sit-ins, the civil society activists in Muzaffarabad city in Pakistani-occupied Kashmir (PoK) threw electricity bills into the river and appealed to the people that they should not pay their electricity bills, Dawn reported.

Tens of hundreds of electricity bills were thrown into the water and an equal number of them were torched in Rawalakot on Thursday.

Since September 20, the People Action Committee in Muzaffarabad has set up a sit-in camp with an appeal to the populace to stop paying their electricity bills, first at a roundabout in front of the Press Club and later on the club grounds facing the main road.

From 9 am to 4 pm every day, participants in the sit-in, which also included traders, solicitors, students and vendors, would gather electricity bills from customers coming from various city neighbourhoods., according to Dawn.

Moreover, the local police also arrested a member of civil society on Monday for violating the National Action Programme against terrorism, as some of the people used mosque loudspeakers to convince people not to pay their electricity bills.

Participants in the sit-in have been seen building boats and aeroplanes out of power bills recently, which they plan to toss into the Neelum River on September 28.

The administration attempted to intimidate the protesters and prevent them from tossing electrical bills into the river on Thursday by stationing multiple riot police units near the sit-in camp, Dawn reported.

The Civil society activists conducted a “boycott bills” demonstration on Thursday in Rawalakot, where a sit-in is being held over the problem of the non-availability of subsidised wheat flour and excessive electricity bills for the past 143 days.

At the rally’s end, hundreds of electricity bills were set on fire as it had marched through several streets to the beat of drums.

A group of individuals led by attorney Saad Ansari destroyed power bills in front of the office of the energy department in the city of Mirpur. (ANI)