AJK teachers' body continue 'hunger strike unto death'.

MUZAFFARABAD -- A 'hunger strike unto death' by as many as 30 office-bearers of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir School Teachers Organisation (AJK STO) entered its second day on Tuesday with participants showing no signs of giving up until acceptance of their demands.

The hunger strike camp has been set up along a busy roundabout in Chattar neighbourhood, which houses almost all important government offices, including the PM Secretariat, Legislative Assembly and superior courts.

Sitting under a small canopy, Amir Firdaus Awan, secretary general AJK STO, told Dawn that their organisation had taken this decision at the end of its tether following the government's 'apathetic and callous' response to their demands notwithstanding a commitment by a ministerial team to them in June this year.

On June 21, AJK STO President Tasaf Shaheen and his colleagues had presented their 'charter of demand' at a press conference in Muzaffarabad where they had threatened to go on a hunger strike if no action was taken by the government by June 25.

However, Mr Awan said on June 25 a ministerial team had met and assured the STO office-bearers that the government would soon take measures for their satisfaction.

'Alas they had just paid lip service to us, as over the past five months, the government did not take a single step to address our concerns,' he said.

Mr Awan said their main demands were upgradation of pay scales and grant of time scale on the basis of length of service on a par with the provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan.

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