Islamabad: The unrest in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) demonstrates the fragility of Pakistan’s governance model, which depends on coercion instead of consent and showcases the contradictions in country’s foreign policy. Pakistan while portraying itself as the defender of Kashmiri rights globally suppresses the rights of people in territories it has occupied, a report has detailed.
People in PoK have been shouting slogans like “Pakistani Forces Out”, “Kashmir Under Attack” and “We Want Basic Rights”, demonstrating the frustration of residents whose voices are being silenced. The unrest in PoK is not only a local crisis but a test of the international community’s resolve to uphold fundamental freedoms in contested regions, it highlighted.
“The bloodshed during the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) protests has stripped away Pakistan’s democratic facade, exposing a regime that responds to bread and butter grievances with repression and militarisation. What began as a campaign for affordable food and fair representation has swelled into a broadbased mobilisation, uniting traders, transporters, lawyers, students, and civil society. Instead of dialogue, Islamabad has chosen to criminalise dissent, turning a grassroots movement into a manufactured ‘security threat’,” A Jathindra, geopolitical analyst and the founding director of the Trinco Centre for Strategic Studies, an independent think tank based in Sri Lanka, wrote in Eurasia Review.
The JAAC has formulated a 38-point charter of demands, which includes reducing electricity tariffs, subsidised price for wheat flour, ending perks for lawmakers and eliminating 12 reserved assembly seats, considered as tools to hold military dominance in PoK’s legislature. The latest protests by JAAC that erupted on June 9 focussed on abolishing the 12 refugee seats in the Legislative Assembly. According to critics, these seats enable Pakistan to manipulate government formation and preventing local representation.
As the clashes erupted in PoK’s Rawalakot, the authorities suspended mobile network and internet services and declared JAAC a proscribed organisation, accusing it of inciting terrorism and disturbing public order. The crackdown intensified with mass arrests, raids and deployment of 14,000 additional security personnel. Pakistan militarised civilian spaces to crush dissent of PoK’s residents, the Eurasia Review report detailed.
The killing of JAAC’s senior figure in Rawalakot marked a decisive turning point, with protesters claiming that he was ambushed by security forces. Following his death, violent clashes erupted across Poonch district, with eyewitnesses reporting that casualties were higher than official figures.
“The unrest in PoJK carries implications beyond the region. It underscores the fragility of Pakistan’s governance model, which relies on coercion rather than consent, and exposes contradictions in its foreign policy: while projecting itself as a champion of Kashmiri rights internationally, Pakistan suppresses those very rights in territories under its control,” wrote Jathindra.
“For South Asia, the crisis highlights the urgent need to address governance deficits and human rights violations in conflict-affected regions. It also raises pressing questions about the role of international actors in holding states accountable for obligations under international law,” the author further stated.
On June 16, the International Human Rights Foundation (IHRF) strongly condemned the violent crackdown on peaceful protestors in PoK by Pakistani authorities. It said that the crackdown was followed by the complete suspension of internet and mobile networks across the region, the deployment of federal paramilitary troops and mass arbitrary arrests of over 100 activists and leaders.
The rights body also cited travel restrictions barring outsiders from entering the region and the arrest of journalist Sohrab Barkat under Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act.
“Branding a civil society body as ‘terrorist’ on vague grounds, while simultaneously sealing the region from outside scrutiny, constitutes a disproportionate and unlawful violation of the right to freedom of association,” the IHRF stated.
The rights body said that the crackdown was not an isolated incident but part of a systemic pattern of human rights violations in PoK.
The IHRF also documented a recurring trend of deadly crackdowns on JAAC protests, including violence in May 2024 and October 2025 that claimed multiple lives.
The rights body called on the Pakistani authorities to immediately halt the use of deadly force against peaceful protesters, lift the internet shutdown, release all individuals arbitrarily detained, and revoke the “unlawful ban” on JAAC.
It also urged an independent and impartial investigation into all civilian deaths, with full access for international observers, and accountability for those responsible for the unlawful use of force, including the alleged extrajudicial killing of activist Shahzeb Habib.
(IANS)
