Published on 6/8/2026
11 people were killed and more than 70 injured as a result of violent confrontations that broke out in the Pakistani-controlled part of the Kashmir region, during an attempt by police forces and paramilitary forces to disperse demonstrators belonging to the Joint People’s Action Committee (Joint Awami Action Committee), an alliance of civil society organizations that the regional government recently classified as a banned group under anti-terrorism laws.
Police said that the clashes broke out when supporters of the committee gathered outside a hospital morgue in the Rawlakot area to transport the body of a member of the group who had been shot dead by police earlier. The committee seeks to defend what it describes as the political and economic rights of the region’s residents.
The commissioner of the Poonch sector in the region, Sardar Wahid Khan, explained that the confrontations resulted in the killing of 4 police officers and a passerby after they were exposed to gunfire from “rioters,” as he put it, while the response of law enforcement forces led to the killing of 6 demonstrators.
Police Chief Liaquat Malik announced that among the injured were 23 members of the security forces and 50 demonstrators, noting that 30 people had been arrested in connection with the events.
Causes of tension and protest demands
These developments come before a general strike called by the committee tomorrow, Tuesday, to protest the allocation of 12 seats for refugees in the regional parliament elections scheduled for next July 27, out of 45 seats open to competition.
The committee calls for the cancellation of these allocated seats in the Legislative Assembly of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, noting that the candidates competing for them do not reside in the region, but rather in other regions of Pakistan.
Following the events, the leader of the committee, Shaukat Nawaz Mir, accused the authorities of committing a “massacre against our people in Rawlakot,” in a video message on the X platform, stressing the group’s determination to continue its movements and ensure the implementation of the scheduled strike.
On the other hand, Commissioner Sardar Waheed Khan rejected these accusations, and said that the committee’s leadership was “misleading the masses,” adding that the state’s movements aimed to restore law and order, and pointing out that activists from the committee carried weapons and Molotov cocktails with which they targeted members of the security forces.
Last Friday, the regional government classified the committee as a banned group, and also called on local and foreign tourists to leave the region before tomorrow, Tuesday.
