Tensions escalate in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) as troops from Punjab Province are being mobilized by the Pakistani authorities to quell an anticipated protest in the region on May 11.
However, the United Kashmir People’s National Party (UKPNP) and the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) have issued stern warnings to the authorities against resorting to any violent measures against peaceful protesters.
Both organizations have cautioned that they will stage international protests and demonstrations if force is used against demonstrators expressing their legitimate grievances.
Currently, personnel from the Frontier Corps, Rangers, and Quick Response Force (QRF) of Punjab Province are deployed in the area. According to a joint statement by the UKPNP and JAAC, the protesters are demanding an end to unjust taxation, high electricity bills, rampant inflation, and severe shortages of essentials like flour.
Furthermore, the local population is demanding ownership rights over land and water resources, as well as royalties for the hydroelectric power generated by dams in PoJK and Pakistan-Occupied Gilgit Baltistan. Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, chairman of UKPNP, and Sardar Nasir Aziz Khan, former spokesperson of the JAAC, highlighted that despite substantial remittances sent annually by the Kashmiri diaspora for development in POJK and POGB, the region suffers from severe underdevelopment.
Allegedly, these funds are being diverted to Pakistani banks, exacerbating economic challenges in the area. Previously, PoJK activist Amjad Ayub Mirza cited official requests from the administration, stating a need for 600 police personnel and six platoons of the Civil Armed Force (CAF) to maintain law and order and protect Chinese nationals, particularly after recent incidents involving Chinese nationals in April.
Mirza emphasized that the people of PoK have been enduring a humanitarian crisis for over four years, with conditions worsening each year and now deteriorating on a monthly basis.
Further, he stated that “of course, the Pakistani state is scared of our people because they have been using all kinds of excuses to suppress our civil disobedience. Now the people are angry and they say that they are going to observe an indefinite sit-in in at legislative assembly Muzafarabad.”