LONDON: Security forces allegedly opened unprovoked firing when supporters of the banned civil rights movement, Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) tried to resume a long-delayed march toward Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Jammu Kashmir (PaJK) coinciding with voting in the first phase of a staggered general election.
Eyewitnesses said police moved to stop marchers entering Rawalakot city as they set off from encampments on its outskirts. Video circulating online showed security personnel firing tear gas into the crowd.
Only some of the footage was independently verified, and there was no official comment on the confrontation as of Monday evening.
The Jammu Kashmir Human Rights Observatory (JKHRO), a monitoring group that has tracked the seven-week crisis, gave a considerably more severe account.
In a statement issued Monday evening, it said security forces had opened fire and shelled the march route from around 4 p.m. local time, and that initial reports, which it stressed still needed independent confirmation, indicated three people had been shot in the head and more than twenty others wounded.
The group said verification was being hampered by severe restrictions on internet and mobile services and limited access for independent journalists.
JAAC and JKHRO describe a campaign of disproportionate force against an unarmed movement. Over 45-48 people have died in police action since June 7, according to different estimates. Late evening reports said that electricity supply had been switched off in Rawalakot and people were being denied access to the hospital.
JAAC took to X and described "the situation in Kashmir is extremely bad right now.. Continuous street firing is taking place." The video was shared on X by @JAAC_Official.
Another video of Aqeel Bhai reporting about the firing incident in Rawalakot was shared on X by @JAAC_Official, which is spearheading the agitation in Pakistan administered Jammu and Kashmir.
A campaign delayed, then resumed
The march was organised by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee, known as JAAC or JKJAAC, a coalition of traders, transporters, lawyers and students banned by Pakistani authorities last month under anti-terrorism legislation.
According to JKHRO, the procession was first called for June 9 but paused the next day near Rawalakot, settling into an extended sit-in at the city's Dharake Eidgah Ground. Fresh march dates were announced and pulled back more than once in the weeks that followed, including a mid-July mobilisation postponed after talks reported to involve a special representative of Pakistan's army chief.
JKHRO said those talks stalled again in recent days, and the march finally resumed Monday afternoon.
JAAC's Advisory Council put the number of people marching, travelling toward the route or otherwise supporting the action at more than 100,000, a figure JKHRO said could not yet be independently verified.
"We are fighting for our rights. And we will move forward peacefully," JAAC spokesperson Umar Nazir told supporters gathered in Rawalakot, according to a report.
Election proceeds under heavy security
Monday's violence unfolded as voting got underway in Mirpur division, the first of three phases in which PaJK's general election is being held this year, a departure from the territory's usual single-day vote, adopted after weeks of unrest.
The regional election commission extended polling by an hour amid tight security, with some 2,100 army personnel deployed for the vote and further phases scheduled for August 8 and August 20 in PaJK's remaining divisions. However, sources in Mirpur said the counting of votes began before the polling time was over and the results were being announced.
Amidst a stringent communication blockade, it was difficult to verify either the casualties or the allegations of procedural violations in elections. Despite the seven-week-long internet and mobile shutdown, locals were managing to circumvent restrictions and post some videos on socil media.
Separate reports on Monday said polling in Rawalakot and Sudhnoti, the two districts at the centre of the unrest, had been postponed to August 10.
JAAC, which is not a registered political party, called on supporters to boycott the vote. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the party that dominated PaJK's last election in 2021, also announced it would not contest, citing the crisis, leaving the race largely to the Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
Roots of the dispute
JAAC grew out of trader-led protests in 2023 against the removal of wheat and flour subsidies and now presses a 38-point charter covering electricity tariffs, governance and civil liberties.
Its central demand in the current crisis is the abolition of 12 of the 45 seats in AJK's Legislative Assembly that are reserved for refugees from the Indian-administered side of Kashmir who resettled in Pakistan after the 1947 partition. JAAC says the arrangement lets Pakistan's mainstream political parties help determine who governs PaJK through votes cast by people who do not live in the territory; Pakistani and PaJK officials reject that argument.
The group's campaign suffered a legal setback last month when the PaJK Supreme Court found that the reserved seats carry constitutional protection and cannot be abolished by executive or administrative action alone, hardening both sides' positions ahead of Monday's vote.
International appeals
The UK government, responding to a parliamentary petition signed by more than 19,000 people, said it was "concerned by reports of unrest, loss of life and communications restrictions" and had raised the matter with Islamabad directly.
JKHRO urged the UN Secretary-General and relevant UN human rights mechanisms to seek direct assurances against further use of live ammunition, press for an independent verification mechanism, and offer neutral facilitation for renewed talks. It explicitly said this is "not a request for military intervention" but for preventive diplomacy before more lives are lost.
The group also appealed to marchers to stay unarmed and disciplined and keep emergency lanes open, and urged international media to authenticate footage before publishing it, warning that fabricated and AI-generated material had already been falsely linked to the unrest.
Monday's JKHRO statement was not the first outside intervention the crisis has drawn. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk appealed for calm in mid-July, calling for "prompt, thorough and impartial investigations" into all the deaths of protesters and security personnel alike and criticising both the anti-terrorism ban on JAAC and the extended internet blackout.
As of Monday evening, neither Islamabad nor the PaJK government had responded publicly to JKHRO's casualty figures or to the reports of firing on marchers.
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