{"id":935,"date":"2026-06-09T14:35:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=935"},"modified":"2026-06-09T14:35:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:35:28","slug":"deadly-protests-in-pakistan-administered-kashmir-whats-going-on-civil-rights-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=935","title":{"rendered":"Deadly protests in Pakistan-administered Kashmir: What\u2019s going on? | Civil Rights News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At least 11 people were killed<\/a> on Sunday during clashes between police and protesters in Pakistan-administered Kashmir\u2019s Rawalakot city, capital of Poonch district, before a major demonstration scheduled by a banned civil society group for Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Authorities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir deployed federal paramilitary troops and issued a strict travel advisory before the Tuesday protest, which has gone ahead despite the restrictions.<\/p>\n

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Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n

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Here is what we know about the latest unrest.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s happening in Pakistan-administered Kashmir?<\/h2>\n

Eleven people have been killed in clashes between the police and protesters, while more than 70 have been injured. The ban on the organisation, alongside regional grievances, set off the protests.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Sardar Waheed Khan, commissioner of the Pakistan side of the Poonch district, a militarised region shared between Indian-administered and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, told the news agency Reuters that four police officers and a passer-by died \u201cafter miscreants shot at them\u201d. Six protesters were killed, he said.<\/p>\n

Police Chief Liaqat Malik said 23 security officials and 50 protesters were among those injured in Sunday\u2019s clashes.<\/p>\n

On Friday, local authorities issued an advisory urging visitors to avoid travelling to the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe measure is advised to save intending visitors from any unexpected situation or inconvenience,\u201d an unnamed official said in a statement issued by the region\u2019s Press Information Department (PID).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government also requests those already in the territory for sightseeing or any other purpose to leave by Friday evening so that they do not confront any unpleasant situation,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n

Kashmir is a disputed<\/a> Himalayan region which is claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, with China also controlling a portion of the territory. Pakistan-administered Kashmir \u2013 known locally as Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) \u2013 is governed under a semi-autonomous system, with its own prime minister and legislative assembly, but ultimate authority resting with Islamabad. Its population exceeds four million people, according to the 2017 census. It is separated from India-administered Kashmir by what is known as the Line of Control (LoC).<\/p>\n

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The LoC is the 740km (459-mile) military border dividing the disputed Kashmir region between Indian-administered and Pakistan-administered territories.<\/p>\n

\"Interactive_Kashmir_June9_2026_Line-of_control\"<\/p>\n

Who is behind the protests?<\/h2>\n

The Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) is a grassroots umbrella organisation that emerged in 2023 as the leader of a protest movement across the Pakistani-administered part of the region. The JAAC, led by activist Shaukat Nawaz Mir, represents traders and civil society groups.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the local government proscribed the JAAC under a regional legislative framework in Pakistan-administered Kashmir called\u00a0the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2014.<\/p>\n

In a circular, the government\u2019s home department claimed the JAAC \u201cis engaged in terrorism, acted in a manner prejudicial to the peace & security of the State, involved in creating anarchy in the State by intimidating public, promoting hatred & creating sense of insecurity in society and public at large, etc\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the past, protests organised by the JAAC have led to violent clashes between protesters and security forces, leading to casualties.<\/p>\n

In a video message on X responding to Sunday\u2019s incident, Mir accused the authorities of unleashing violence in Rawalakot, saying, \u201cThe state has begun a massacre of our people in Rawalakot.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Khan, the commissioner of Pakistani Poonch, said, \u201cThe JAAC leadership is misleading the masses by terming it a massacre. The state\u2019s action was meant to restore law and order.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the internet monitoring group NetBlocks said that its data showed that access to the web remained severely restricted in Pakistan-administered Kashmir for a third day in a row.<\/p>\n

What is the trigger behind these protests?<\/h2>\n

These protests are against the reservation of 12 seats in Pakistan-administered Kashmir\u2019s legislature for refugees from Indian-administered Kashmir who now live in other parts of Pakistan. If the refugees live in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, they are not eligible to contest for these reserved seats.<\/p>\n

The region votes on July 27 to elect its next legislature, which has 45 seats in all \u2014 including the 12 reserved ones.<\/p>\n

The JAAC is calling for the abolition of the reserved seats, arguing that all seats in the legislature must go to those who actually reside in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and not those living in other constituencies scattered across Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Abdul Jabbar Nasir, a journalist currently based in Karachi, but originally from a village near the LoC in the Gilgit Baltistan area, which is the majority of the Pakistan-administered Kashmir region, told Al Jazeera that the seats are reserved for those who migrated from Indian-administered Kashmir to Karachi or any other part of Pakistan in 1947.<\/p>\n

Nasir explained that the reserved seats have existed in various forms since the late 1940s and were formalised in Pakistan-administered Kashmir\u2019s 1974 interim constitution, which treats the region as a self-governing, autonomous state, with its own prime minister, president and courts, while defence, foreign affairs, currency and communications remain under Pakistan\u2019s control.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the constitutional protection provided begins to be changed by these protesters, then I don\u2019t think things can function,\u201d Nasir said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is essential for these seats to exist. If we abolish them, on one hand, Pakistan\u2019s own case for Kashmiri statehood in the United Nations will be weakened, and India\u2019s case will be strengthened,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He drew a parallel with India, noting that New Delhi historically kept a number of seats vacant in its parliament and the former Jammu and Kashmir assembly as a way of asserting that those bodies represented the entire former princely state, including areas under Pakistani control. If Pakistan now dismantles refugee representation in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, he warned, India could argue that both countries have effectively \u201cregularised\u201d their control over their respective portions of the disputed region.<\/p>\n

Marathon talks between a federal ministerial team, including leaders from Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and JAAC leadership in late May failed to yield a breakthrough. This resulted in the JAAC announcing that the protest on Tuesday would proceed as planned.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, a top court in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, called the Supreme Court of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, ruled that the 12 reserved seats are constitutionally protected, and a constitutional amendment would be needed to abolish the reservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ruling effectively closed the legal route for groups seeking to challenge the existing arrangement and intensified calls for protest by the [JAAC],\u201d Raja Qaiser Ahmed, director for the Area Study Centre for Africa, North and South America at the Islamabad-based Quaid-i-Azam University, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

What are the deeper issues?<\/h2>\n

Experts say the current crisis is part of a deeper, long-running debate about governance, political representation, resource allocation and regional autonomy in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The protest on Tuesday is the fourth such protest led by the JAAC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current crisis reflects a broader and longer-term debate about governance, political representation, resource distribution, and regional autonomy in AJK,\u201d Ahmed said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the refugee-seat issue has become the focal point of the present mobilisation, it is intertwined with wider grievances that have surfaced repeatedly over the past several years.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September and October 2025, the JAAC officially released a comprehensive 38-point charter of demands and initiated a lockdown<\/a>. The government, in response to a lockdown initiated by JAAC, imposed a complete communications blackout.<\/p>\n

The protests had their roots in May 2023, when residents first protested skyrocketing electricity bills alongside widespread flour smuggling and acute shortages in subsidised wheat supplies. The movement hit its first major flashpoint in May 2024<\/a>, when protesters set off on a long march towards Muzaffarabad. The ensuing violent clashes left at least five people dead, among them a police officer.<\/p>\n

The 38-point charter remains the focal point of current tensions. The demands of the charter include economic subsidies, investigation of corrupt officials, social welfare and infrastructure, as well as the abolition of the 12 reserved seats.<\/p>\n

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, chairman of the Pakistan Peoples\u2019 Party (PPP), the party with the most seats in Pakistan-administered Kashmir\u2019s Legislative Assembly, said on Sunday that he would meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to discuss the ongoing tensions in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThirty-five out of 38 demands have been implemented,\u201d Bhutto-Zardari said during a news conference in Islamabad, explaining that the rest of the demands are not feasible or have court orders barring their implementation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore fundamentally, the protests reveal an ongoing tension between constitutional arrangements linked to the broader Kashmir dispute and growing demands for greater local accountability and political participation,\u201d Ahmed said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe debate is therefore not only about a specific set of assembly seats but also about competing visions of representation, governance, and the future political trajectory of the region.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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At least 11 people were killed on Sunday during clashes between police and protesters in Pakistan-administered Kashmir\u2019s Rawalakot city, capital of Poonch district, before a major demonstration scheduled by a banned civil society group for Tuesday. Authorities in Pakistan-administered Kashmir deployed federal paramilitary troops and issued a strict travel advisory before the Tuesday protest, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international-news","8":"category-news"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}