Bloody scenes have emerged today from Azad Kashmir with many reported dead at the hands of Pakistani security forces as local election polls opened under heavy security.
Pakistan-administered Kashmir, otherwise known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), has spent the last six weeks under an unofficial state of emergency as protests have broken out over scheduled elections.
The unofficial lockdown has included banks being shut for two weeks and mobile and internet services being suspended across most of the region.
A hotspot for civil unrest has been the Poonch division, which sits on the border with India and was blocked off for weeks, disrupting key food supplies including flour and other essentials.
The protests began around June 5, when the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) was banned by the government on that date. The ban came a day before a planned demonstration, with the JAAC being the main organising force behind the protests.
The JAAC leadership has since gone underground or been arrested, as they continue to organise protests from Rawalakot, the administrative headquarters of Poonch division.
They have since expanded their demands to include 38 points, the principal one being the abolition of the 12 assembly seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees from India.
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The vote, originally scheduled for July 27, has been at the root of the protests and unrest.
The elections are made up of a 45-seat Legislative Assembly and are now being held across three separate dates. Mirpur division voted as planned on July 27, Muzaffarabad division and the 12 seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees will vote on August 2, and Poonch division, where the majority of unrest has taken place, will go to the polls on August 10.
The JAAC has urged its supporters to boycott the vote, as its leadership has been removed from the ballot.
The demands from the JAAC surrounding the 12 refugee seats remain the key source of conflict, as the government has said it cannot change or alter them without amending the entire constitution.
Refugee representation controversy
The 12 seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees who do not live in Pakistani-administered Kashmir have long been a contentious issue in the region.
The JAAC has argued that the disputed seats undermine local representation and that all seats should go to those who actually live inside the region.
The seats have existed for decades and are protected under the region’s constitutional framework. A ruling by the Supreme Court of Azad Jammu and Kashmir has reinforced that they are constitutionally protected and cannot be abolished.
Killings continue
Videos emerged today from Mirpur district showing police opening fire on a group of unarmed civilians. Dozens were injured and the death toll remains unconfirmed.
Footage showed police placing limp bodies into the back of police vehicles, leaving behind pools of blood on the street.
One distressed witness said on camera: “The oppressors have martyred countless of our brothers. They are worse than the Zionists. These oppressors have no shame. There is blood all over this road. What kind of horror is this?”
Visibly upset by what he had witnessed, he continued: “You bought these bullets with our tax money, and now you’re using them to kill us… you will answer in the grave. Don’t you recite the shahadah?”
The unofficial death toll of 45 over the past few weeks is expected to rise in the coming days as unrest appears to be intensifying over the rejected demands of the JAAC and its supporters.
At the time of publication, neither the Pakistani government nor the Azad Kashmir government had issued an official response to the reported shootings in Mirpur.
However, in previous statements, the Azad Kashmir government has defended the security operation, insisting the elections would proceed as scheduled while accusing the banned Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) of inciting violence, attacking security personnel and disrupting essential supplies.
Authorities have also previously denied allegations that police indiscriminately opened fire on protesters.
