PoK protests, Islamabad's repression blow apart farce created by Pakistan

Projecting himself internationally as a peacemaker, Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, has unleashed domestic repression, with the latest being in a territory fictionally called "Azad Kashmir".

While violence in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remains endemic, protests have now broken out at several places in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) demanding freedom from alien (Pakistan army) rule. In all three theatres of conflict, Pak establishment squarely blames India and alleges the latter's "alliance" with Israel to destabilise it.

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The reality is that the "pro-azadi" sentiment whipped up by Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir for launching its proxy war against India is coming back to haunt it. Pakistan now realises that this sentiment also resonates in PoK.

So far, about twenty protesters have lost their lives and hundreds have been detained. Thousands of protesters are observing a sit-in under the auspices of the now-banned Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) at Rawalakot in PoK. The leadership of JAAC has gone underground, fearing arrests.

The call for a march to Muzaffarabad remains suspended due to the police crackdown. A complete strike is being observed in PoK. The Pakistani government has suspended internet services. Food, medicine and fuel supplies have been blocked by the government to pressurise the agitators to call off the protests.

Interestingly, the same tactics were adopted by the Pakistan government in September 1947 to force Maharaja Hari Singh to accede to Pakistan after having signed a standstill agreement.

A smear campaign has been launched in the media against protesters, calling them traitors and Indian agents. The tirade is being led by Pakistan's defence minister Khwaja Asif.

Recalling the losses suffered by Pakistan in various wars against India over Kashmir, he described the people of PoK as "ungrateful". He inflamed the situation by claiming that those protesting at Rawalakot are not ethnic Kashmiris.

But his claim that those getting elected in the twelve contentious seats reserved for migrants are the real Kashmiris is also only partially correct. In fact, some Muslims from both the Kashmir Valley and the Jammu region had crossed over to Pakistan, believing it would become a citadel of Islam and had supported the merger of Kashmir with Pakistan.

Khwaja Asif was trying to justify the contentious twelve seats reserved for migrants from the Indian side of Jammu and Kashmir. These seats come in handy for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to manipulate government formation, favouring the ruling party at the federal level. In an assembly of 53, these seats become crucial in deciding the fate of any government. That is why the abolition of these seats before the scheduled elections on July 27 is one of the main demands of the protesters. Voting for these seats takes place in various cities of Pakistan.

Can Khwaja Asif explain - if these people are not Kashmiris, then why have they always been paraded by Pakistan at all international forums? Will he also tell the world that governments in PoK, beginning with Sardar Ibrahim Khan, have always been headed by non-Kashmiris?

It was amusing to see protesters originally belonging to P0K holding demonstrations in front of the Pakistani High Commission in London, raising anti-Pakistan and anti-army slogans. The same people were earlier regularly ferried by the Pakistan High Commission in London to hold protests at the Indian High Commission during India's Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations. Perturbed by the protests abroad, the Pakistan army is targeting the families of those in POK to force the expatriates to stay away.

The protests have completely blown apart a farce created by the Pakistani government that it has no control over the administration of this area, which it untiringly claims to be a base camp of "freedom struggle". This explanation has been given by Pakistan many times in bilateral dialogue with India, when the issue of terror groups operating from its soil was raised.

There is an eerie resemblance between how the unrest began in Jammu and Kashmir in 1988 and the protests in "Azad Kashmir" in 2024. In J&K, anger came out on the streets after the state government raised the electricity prices.

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Similarly, in "Azad Kashmir", the protests were triggered by the rise in prices of wheat flour and electricity. In both cases, the underlying cause of mass disaffection remained political manipulations by respective central leaderships to install governments of their favourites using undemocratic means and electoral malpractices.

But the root cause remains economic deprivation in terms of lack of education, health facilities and employment opportunities for the youth who have lost faith in the system. The general feeling of deprivation got aggravated when those from PoK visited the Indian side of J&K by bus and noted the universities, medical and engineering colleges and quality health services.

The crucial question is whether "Azad Kashmir" will become another festering wound like Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Or worse, will Pakistan cut its own "jugular vein"?

Repressive measures can have short-term relief, but the wound would become deep and affect Pakistan's internal stability. The applause from US President Trump can in no way help in buttressing the sagging image of the army domestically. The lesson for India is to let Pakistan stew in its own juice. Any overt or covert intervention by India is likely to boomerang badly and create a similar situation to the one Pakistan is in today.