Pakistan: Protests continue in Azad Kashmir despite repression and internet blackout

To contact us, Usman*, a resident of Rawalakot, a city in the Pakistan-administered part of the disputed Kashmir region, has to climb into the nearby mountains, where he can pick up a few bars of mobile signal from outside the province. This article was reported by the FRANCE 24 Observers, the network’s digital investigation team in Paris, via social media. No other FRANCE 24 staff contributed to the report. *We have concealed the identity of people we spoke to inside Pakistan to protect them from reporting restrictions imposed by the Pakistani government. Azad and Jammu Kashmir (AJK), an autonomous territory under Pakistani administration since the partition of Kashmir between India and Pakistan in 1947, has been gripped by widespread protests since June. The Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) – a local opposition movement founded in 2023 – is leading the mobilisation and is calling, among other things, for electoral reform, greater political representation and more resources for the territory. After several rounds of protests that led to government concessions, dialogue broke down in the run-up to local legislative elections, held between July 27 and August 10. On June 5, the Az...