Political tensions have escalated across Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) after the banned Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) called for large-scale protests across the region on Sunday, urging residents to defy an intensifying government crackdown and demand the release of detained activists and leaders.
JAAC core member Umar Nazir Kashmiri appealed to people in all three administrative divisions to participate in the demonstrations, describing the protests as a response to the alleged disappearance of activists and the growing pressure on the organisation.
The immediate trigger for the latest mobilisation is the arrest and alleged enforced disappearance of senior trader leader and JAAC spokesperson Shaukat Nawaz Mir, along with hundreds of other civil rights activists. According to reports, Mir was detained during a joint operation involving Pakistani intelligence agencies and local police while he was on his way to a sit-in protest. Rather than containing the movement, the operation has reportedly sparked widespread anger across several major towns.
In a public appeal to residents of the Muzaffarabad, Jhelum and Neelum valleys, Umar Nazir Kashmiri said the movement belongs to the people rather than any individual leader and urged citizens to oppose what he described as systemic repression through peaceful means.
“We must not bow down to oppression and tyranny," Kashmiri stated, maintaining that steadfast, non-violent resistance remains the ultimate path to successfully securing public rights and an end to state atrocities.
The planned demonstrations come at a particularly sensitive time for the region. The Pakistani administration recently outlawed the JAAC under anti-terrorism legislation after more than a month of strikes, sit-ins and protests over rising wheat prices, high electricity taxes and alleged human rights violations.
Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have criticised the authorities over the use of force and the application of broad anti-terror laws against what they describe as a grassroots socio-political movement.
Despite an increased security presence and barricades erected across Muzaffarabad and neighbouring districts, organisers have said the protests will go ahead as planned on Sunday. They contend that the government's campaign of targeted arrests has strengthened public resolve, transforming economic discontent into a wider movement seeking greater autonomy and civil liberties.
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