Islamabad: The unrest in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) must serve as a compelling case for independent fact-finding mission by the United Nations and other international organisations to carry out investigation into the Pakistani army’s excesses, civilian deaths, arbitrary arrests, and human rights violations in PoK, a report has detailed.
The current unrest in PoK started in 2023, with protests staged over electricity tariffs and flour shortages. The Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC), a coalition of traders, lawyers, transporters, students and civil society groups, formulated a 38-point charter of demands, including subsidised rate for essentials and electoral reforms. The group has demanded abolishing 12 assembly seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees living outside the region, which local residents said are undermining their political voice, according to a report in the US-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
People of PoK have economic grievances also as the region contributes substantially to Pakistan’s hydropower generation. However, residents of PoK have complained about paying electricity tariffs above production costs while consumers and officials in other parts of Pakistan pay preferential rates.
The unrest has led to strikes, clashes, barricades, arrests, and heavy security deployments in Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot, and other parts of PoK. Clashes erupted in Rawalakot with several media reports claiming that 27 people were killed and more than 200 others were injured.
However, the International Human Rights Foundation (IHRF) said that more than 32 people were killed from June 8-16 and demanded an independent international investigation. The Pakistani authorities banned JKJAAC under anti-terror provisions and targeted its leaders, ordered sedition cases against prominent figures, suspended internet and mobile networks in PoK, according to the report in MEMRI.
“The language used against JKJAAC follows the familiar script of Pakistan’s security establishment: first delegitimise the grievance, then criminalise the protester, then justify force as law and order. A movement demanding cheaper electricity, wheat relief, local rights and political representation is now being pushed into the frame of sedition, terrorism, and anti-national activity. This is how the hard state manufactures its own justification: It turns public anger into a security file,” Fatima El Hashimi, Moroccan researcher and journalist, mentioned in the report in MEMRI. Large sit-ins, including gatherings of more than 70,000 people at Eidgah Ground in Rawalakot, continued into the third week of June, with protesters shouting slogans like “Pak Forces Out” and demanding an end to occupation. The unrest in PoK demonstrates more than a local governance crisis as it tests Pakistan’s Kashmir policy and the narrative it has been promoting for years. “The events in PoJK since 2023 provide evidence that challenges Pakistan’s claim on factual grounds. Residents of the territory have protested against the administration that Islamabad controls. That administration has responded with force, communications blackouts, and anti-terrorism designations applied to civilian protest groups,” Fatima El Hashimi mentioned in the report in MEMRI. (IANS)
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