New Delhi: India strongly criticized Pakistan over its handling of ongoing protests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), where more than 40 people have died in recent weeks amid clashes between security forces and demonstrators.
The unrest began over demands to scrap 12 reserved seats in the region’s legislative assembly, seats set aside for refugees from Jammu and Kashmir who live elsewhere in Pakistan. Protesters, led by the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), argue the arrangement lets people who do not live in the region influence its politics. The demonstrations grew after a local court ruled the reserved seats were protected by the constitution and could not be removed without a formal amendment.
Since then, protests have spread across towns including Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Rawalakot, Kotli and Bagh. Pakistan has deployed police and army units from Punjab province to control the crowds. The situation escalated further as elections for the region’s assembly began, held in three phases through July and August. The JAAC has boycotted the vote, and reports of firing on protesters during polling have added to the death toll.
India’s response on PoK’s unrest
India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal addressed the crisis at a media briefing in New Delhi. “We have witnessed that the Pakistani establishment continues to unleash ruthless force against peaceful civilians in Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir. This crackdown has resulted in the tragic death of over 40 innocent people, and many more have been seriously injured. It is the establishment’s absolute disdain for the innocent people of Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir that was laid bare when their defense minister branded the protesting civilians as enemies,” he said.
Jaiswal said Pakistan’s disregard for the people of the region became clear when its defense minister described the protesters as enemies. He also pointed to comments from Rana Sanaullah, an advisor to Pakistan’s prime minister on political affairs, who admitted publicly that the same fighters Pakistan had once trained and armed to fight in India have now turned their weapons on the Pakistani state itself.
Sanaullah said on record that Pakistan trained mujahideen who are now a burden to the country. “These are the same people we once trained as mujahideen, we sent them to fight, and today they are hanging around our necks,” he said. Separately, he alleged that protesters in PoK are trying to seize Muzaffarabad and Mirpur in an India-like attack.
The Pakistani establishment’s complete disregard for the innocent people of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir became evident when its Defense Minister described the protesting civilians as enemies. Furthermore, the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Political Affairs openly admitted that the militants whom the Pakistani establishment had armed and trained to shed Indian blood have now turned their guns against their own country, Jaiswal said.
“This admission amounts to a humiliating indictment of the Pakistani establishment. Faced with a violent regime, the people there have called upon international organizations to conduct an independent investigation into the unlawful killings,” he added, urging the international community “to closely examine Pakistan’s actions and hold it accountable for these atrocities.”
India dismisses the elections
India rejected the ongoing assembly elections in the region. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “The so-called legislative assembly elections are being conducted in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. India’s position on this particular matter has been clear, consistent, and well-known. The entire Union territories of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas currently under illegal occupation and forcible occupation of Pakistan, are integral and inalienable parts of India.”
“These cosmetic elections being conducted there are merely an attempt by Pakistan to conceal its illegal occupation of Jammu & Kashmir and the human rights violations being committed against the people living there. As we have stated earlier, the ongoing protests there are the result of decades of systematic economic exploitation, violations of fundamental rights, and administrative repression by Pakistan,” he added.
He said the protests are the direct result of years of economic exploitation, denial of basic rights, and administrative repression by Pakistan. Separately, the Indian Embassy in the United States objected to a New York Times article that referred to the region as “Pakistani Kashmir,” calling the description misleading and incorrect.
India raises the issue at the United Nations
India also took its position to the international stage. Anupama Singh, First Secretary at India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, addressed the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council. She rejected claims made by Pakistan and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation regarding Jammu and Kashmir, saying “the territory was, is, and will always remain part of India.”
Singh said Pakistan uses such claims to deflect from its own domestic problems and its continued support for terrorism. She said the only unresolved matter is the return of Indian territories currently under Pakistan’s occupation. She added that Pakistan is trying to shift global attention away from the unrest inside the region it controls, and that no argument from Islamabad changes the situation on the ground.
Voices from within Kashmir
The crisis has also drawn reaction from religious and political figures based in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, on the other side of the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border dividing the region between India and Pakistan.
Mirwaiz Mohammad Umar Farooq, Chief of Mirwaiz-e-Kashmir and a religious leader, expressed deep concern over the continuing unrest and tragic loss of lives across the Line of Control, particularly in Rawalakot. Mirwaiz said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with our brothers and sisters on the other side of the Line of Control. We are deeply anguished by the continuing unrest and the tragic loss of precious lives during the past month and a half. Dozens of people have been killed, while some accounts place the cumulative toll even higher. The truth must be established through a prompt, impartial and transparent investigation.”
“We are one people, bound together by history, family, culture and our common State Subject identity. Whether we live in Srinagar, Muzaffarabad, Birmingham or elsewhere across the world, we remain one people. The Line of Control has divided the territory, but not our families, our shared history or our collective stake in our destiny,” Farooq said.
He urged Pakistan’s government and local authorities to engage sincerely with the representatives of the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) and with all sections of the people. “Durable peace and stability can only be achieved through dialogue, constitutional fairness and respect for the rights and dignity of every segment of society,” he said.
Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister of India’s Jammu and Kashmir, also reacted to the violence. She said, “The visuals emerging from across the LoC in the other part of Kashmir are deeply heartbreaking. It is painful to see peaceful protesters being met with brute force. The Government of Pakistan must adopt a more humane approach and choose dialogue over force.”
“The protesters’ demands are genuine and deserve to be heard. No nation grows stronger by disempowering its own people or by silencing them at gunpoint. The Government must end the crackdown and stop spraying bullets at peaceful protesters. Kashmiris deserve dignity, justice, and the right to be heard, not repression,” she added.
Why this matters internationally
The region known as PoK or PoJK has been at the centre of tension between India and Pakistan since both countries gained independence in 1947. India claims the entire territory as its own, while Pakistan administers part of it and refers to it as Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The current unrest, one of the largest waves of protest in the region in years, has drawn attention not just from India but from human rights groups and internal voices in Pakistan, including officials who have publicly acknowledged the state’s own past role in arming groups now involved in the unrest.
As the remaining phase of elections in the region approaches on August 10, the question of how Pakistan handles further protests, and how India continues to respond diplomatically, is likely to keep this story in focus.
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