MUZAFFARABAD/LONDON: What has unfolded in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir (PaJK), also locally called Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), since June 5, 2026 is, by any measure, one of the region’s most violent weeks in years.
A civilian rights movement – Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC) - has been designated a terrorist organisation. Internet and mobile services have been cut for over a week. Hundreds have been arrested. Security forces have opened live fire on protesters and mourners. Bodies have allegedly been seized from hospitals and withheld from grieving families unless they signed statements branding their loved ones terrorists.
Journalists have been arrested for reporting what they saw. Supply routes have allegedly been blockaded, choking off food and medicine. Behind a near-total communications blackout, with even experienced correspondents reduced to dictating reports over the phone, the full scale of what has happened remains impossible to independently verify.
Several human rights reports – two by the Human Rights Cell of the JKJAAC, and another by a human rights lawyer – and some news sources confirm the grave violations.
The death toll from clashes between police and members of the banned protest movement has risen to at least 20. A June 14, 2026 update from the JKJAAC Human Rights Cell warns that the crisis “may now be moving from a human rights emergency into a broader humanitarian protection emergency,” with field reports alleging a fresh crackdown at Dharake/Eidgah Ground in Rawalakot, renewed firing and shelling, three further civilian deaths, at least eight additional injuries, and a blockade of major entry points cutting off food, medicine and essential goods to an estimated 350,000 people.
Amnesty International has formally condemned the crackdown as involving “an internet shutdown, mass arbitrary arrests and deadly use of force,” and stated that the proscription of the movement was “disproportionate, unlawful and a violation of the right to freedom of association.” Both Amnesty International and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan have voiced alarm at the mass arrests, internet shutdown, and use of deadly force.
The JKJAAC Human Rights Cell 14 June Situation Update Report warns that field reports allege a fresh Rangers crackdown at Dharake/Eidgah Ground, Rawalakot, with “large pools of blood on the ground, three further civilian deaths and at least eight injuries.” Ambulances were reported entering the ground. Naeem Amin of Islampura, Pallandri, a sit-in participant injured by indiscriminate firing, was confirmed dead at approximately 06:45 GMT on 14 June by human rights defender Sardar Amir Khan.
A Movement, a Ban, and an Election
The Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC) is a loose coalition of traders, lawyers, transporters, and activists that has led mass mobilisations in PaJK since 2023. Its demands, laid out in a 38-point charter, span governance, public services, electricity tariffs, employment, water, forests, healthcare, education, land rights, and accountability. Among its central demands in this latest wave of mobilisation was the ‘abolition of the 12 assembly seats reserved for refugees from Indian-administered Kashmir’ living in mainland Pakistan - seats which, critics argue, mainstream Pakistani parties use to make and break governments in Muzaffarabad.
The timing of the government’s ban was not incidental. On June 5, 2026, the PaJK Home Department proscribed JKJAAC under the region’s Anti-Terrorism Act, 2014, accusing the movement of “terrorism, anarchy and intimidating the public.” This was the same day the Election Commission was processing candidacies for elections scheduled for 27 July. The government simultaneously issued a travel advisory ordering tourists to leave the region until 20 June, at the peak of the summer tourism season.
Amnesty International characterised the proscription as “disproportionate, unlawful and a violation of the right to freedom of association,” describing JKJAAC as “a grassroots movement advocating for the economic and political rights of people in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir.” JKJAAC members themselves have decried their listing as a terror group as “appression,” saying they are demonstrating for legitimate economic and political rights.
The First Killing: Shahzaib Habib
Within hours of the ban, things turned deadly. Late on the night of Friday, June 5, a trader named Shahzaib Habib (also spelled Shazaib in some sources) was shot dead near Barmang bridge in Rawalakot while travelling with Umar Nazir Kashmiri, a JKJAAC core committee member from Poonch. Police claimed that armed occupants of a suspicious vehicle opened fire first and officers retaliated. Pakistan’s official statement, notably, made no mention of any death.
Human rights lawyer Yasir Shafaat, whose Preliminary Human Rights Incident Report was prepared through direct communication with family members, local journalists, and local residents, concluded that Habib, a resident of village Koiyaan Gallyat, Rawalakot, “was killed by Rangers firing on Friday, 5 June 2026, near Barmang Pull.” Umar Nazir Kashmiri, who survived the same incident, reportedly suffered two gunshot wounds - one to the ear and one to the arm. According to Shafaat’s report and the JKJAAC Advisory Council dossier, “remained unable to obtain timely and proper medical treatment.”
Habib’s family staged a sit-in with his body outside the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Rawalakot — scenes that set the stage for what followed. Simultaneously, police announced they had arrested around 72 people linked to the banned organisation in just 18 hours, claiming recovery of weapons, communication devices, and documents with alleged foreign contacts — allegations dismissed by the movement’s supporters. Kashmir Times has already reported how these actions follow “a familiar playbook.”
Outside CMH Rawalakot
On Sunday night, the standoff outside the Rawalakot hospital exploded into the week’s worst violence. Officials confirmed that at least seven civilians were killed and dozens wounded, while four law enforcement personnel also died. Officials accused demonstrators of storming the military hospital; the JKJAAC, for its part, alleged that the electricity was cut before forces opened fire on a peaceful sit-in in the dark. The JKJAAC Advisory Council dossier records the use of “live ammunition, rubber bullets, pellet guns and tear gas against unarmed demonstrators.”
The JKJAAC Human Rights Cell 13 June baseline report documents that Ahtsham Sabir of Chak Barmang was killed on 7 June 2026 during the Rawalakot protests, with “the local account verified through JKJAAC attributing the death to firing by Rangers and FC personnel.”
One of the most alarming allegations in Shafaat’s report concerns the same night: “witnesses saw bodies being loaded into trucks and taken away” after the operation outside CMH Rawalakot. “Families are now searching for missing sons and brothers and fear that some of them may have been killed or unlawfully disappeared,” the report states. Voicepk.net reported that Rangers personnel prevented journalists from entering the hospital, making it impossible to obtain independent casualty figures.
The JKJAAC Human Rights Cell 14 June update further records that 107 individuals were reportedly initially detained at Rawalakot Police Station on 7 June alone. Their detention was accompanied by allegations of “beatings, denial of water, inadequate food and drink, and delayed or refused medical treatment.” Permission for urgent hospital care was allegedly refused or delayed by Rangers personnel.
The Death Toll: Diverging Counts
The death toll varies significantly depending on the source and the timeframe, and the communications blackout has made independent verification extremely difficult. All figures below are cited with attribution.
Official figures via AFP (Arab News, 12 June 2026): An AFP tally based on official statements put the total at 20 dead by 12 June. Commissioner Sardar Waheed, the top civilian official in Rawalakot, confirmed 12 people killed there, including four police officers. The local government’s higher education minister, Malik Zafar, confirmed seven dead in Kotli. A senior police official in Mirpur, Khurram Iqbal, confirmed one protester killed during clashes on Wednesday.
Al Jazeera (9 June 2026): Al Jazeera reported at least 11 people killed in Rawalakot-related clashes, citing official accounts that six protesters died alongside law enforcement personnel and a passerby.
Voicepk.net (8 June 2026): Voicepk.net reported at least eight deaths, including civilians and police, while noting a police source warned the real number could be higher.
Pakistan Today (9 June 2026): Pakistan Today reported seven civilians and four law enforcement personnel dead, with more than 200 detained across the region.
JKJAAC baseline report (13 June 2026): Records 14 civilians killed since June 5, including nine killings by security forces on 6 June during the Long March, and one further death on 11 June.
JKJAAC 14 June update: Field reports allege three further civilian deaths at Dharake/Eidgah Ground on June 14, plus the confirmed death of Naeem Amin of Islampura, Pallandri - a sit-in participant shot by indiscriminate firing, confirmed dead at approximately 06:45 GMT on June 14. These figures require urgent independent verification.
Local journalists and residents (Shafaat’s report): Allege around 500 people injured and more than 300 missing — figures the report stresses “require immediate official clarification.”
This is not the first-time violence of this scale has struck the region: days of clashes between police and protesters led by the JAAC last gripped the Himalayan region in September 2025, with nine confirmed killed.
Kotli: Killings on Tuesday
Tuesday, 9 June, brought a complete shutter-down strike across PaJK and fresh clashes as marchers from Mirpur division tried to converge on Muzaffarabad. In Kotli, six to nine people were killed as security forces confronted protest convoys, according to different sources cited in journalist accounts. Residents and even cabinet members confirmed that several had been killed, including a doctor reportedly hit by a stray bullet on his own rooftop.
The names of those killed in Kotli, as provided by sources to journalists covering the events, are: Dr Ahsan Saleem, Saeen Akhtar, Haseeb Naqash, Aroosa (a woman), Chowdhary Ehtsham, Aziz Malik, Rahim Subhani, and a man known as Goga Bhai. Shafaat’s report independently verified several of these deaths. The JKJAAC Human Rights Cell 14 June update further records that M. Shabir, aged approximately 70, from Thill Kanjarey Balouch, “died at Kotli Hospital on 9 June 2026, linked to the JAAC March.”
Among those named in Shafaat’s report as killed in Kotli is Uroosa Shoukat, an Advocate of the High Court. According to information supplied to Shafaat, she was not part of the protest and was killed at her home after Rangers entered the premises — “an extremely serious allegation” the report says calls for “an immediate, independent, and transparent investigation, including recovery of any scene-of-crime record, witness statements, and forensic evidence.”
Fresh Crackdown at Dharake/Eidgah Ground
The JKJAAC Human Rights Cell 14 June Situation Update Report — the most recent documentation reviewed here — records a significant and alarming escalation. As of the morning of 14 June, “field updates received from JKJAAC-linked sources allege that Pakistani Rangers and security forces began a fresh crackdown on peaceful sit-in participants at Dharake/Eidgah Ground, Rawalakot.”
The report records that “widely circulated social media videos reportedly show ambulances entering the Eidgah Ground area,” while a local Facebook page allegedly posted video evidence of “large pools of blood on the ground” and reported three further civilian deaths and eight injuries. Another local Facebook update allegedly described “indiscriminate firing and shelling by security forces” and warned of further casualties.
Subhan Arif, son of Muhammad Arif, a resident of village Jabraan Gorah, Plandri/Sudhnoti, is documented in the 14 June report as deceased following an incident on 11 June outside the JAAC dharna at Dharake, Rawalakot. The report states he was reportedly “going toward the mosque for prayer when Rangers personnel allegedly opened fire, resulting in fatal injuries.”
At approximately 06:45 GMT on 14 June, Naeem Amin of Islampura, Pallandri, “a participant of the peaceful sit-in at Dharake, who was injured by the security forces’ indiscriminate firing,” was confirmed dead. Human rights defender Sardar Amir Khan confirmed his death.
The JKJAAC report cautions that the 14 June claims “are urgent and serious, but must be treated as requiring immediate independent verification, preservation of video evidence, hospital confirmation, witness statements, and casualty lists.”
Bodies Withheld: Coercion at the Point of Grief
Among the most disturbing patterns documented across multiple sources is the alleged withholding of bodies from families, with coercive conditions attached to their return. a practice that echoes “the playbook used in Kashmir, on the Indian side, since 2020, where authorities stopped returning the bodies of those killed in encounters.”
Shafaat’s report centres on the case of Fahad Barkat — identified as a resident of Rehara, Rawalakot, approximately 26 years old and employed as a school-shift driver — who went to CMH Rawalakot after being informed that blood was needed. He was killed outside the hospital.
According to family-linked sources cited by Shafaat, his body was not handed over to the family, and they were told “the parents must sign a statement saying their son was a terrorist killed in a police encounter before the body would be released.” The JKJAAC Human Rights Cell 13 June baseline report describes this, if verified, as “a grave violation of dignity, family rights and due process.”
A separate case, documented in journalist accounts, concerns Usman Sabir of Khai Gala, killed outside CMH Rawalakot on the evening of 7 June. His brother Imran reported that police seized the body in front of him and took it to an unknown location. When Imran went to the police station the next day, he was first directed to a colonel, then told the body had been “buried safely.” Imran also confirmed that some families were handed bodies only on the condition that they sign statements declaring their loved one a terrorist.
The 14 June JKJAAC update also formally documents the case of Bilal Ashraf of Haveli Abadi, Bagh, as a “reported missing-person case verified through JKJAAC Human Rights Team channels,” linked to the alleged attack on Umar Nazir Kashmiri. The report states that “his detention, injury, death or unknown-location transfer remains unconfirmed.”
Sedition, Bounties, and Mass Detention
By Tuesday, June 10, the government had moved directly against JKJAAC’s leadership. Sedition proceedings were ordered against JKJAAC leaders Shaukat Nawaz Mir and Mehran Arshad Khawaja over their speeches and videos. The government announced a Rs10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of four leaders, including Umar Nazir Kashmiri and Sardar Aman Khan. More than 200 people have reportedly been detained region-wide; the JKJAAC Advisory Council dossier puts the figure at approximately 300, with an additional 107 individuals reportedly initially detained at Rawalakot Police Station on June 7, alone.
Kashmir Times earlier reported this “surreal split-screen” moment. PaJK Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore was simultaneously appealing on X for all sides to return to the negotiating table, even as his administration was placing bounties on the negotiators’ heads. On Wednesday, June 11, authorities imposed strict curfew in Poonch and other areas; locals reported helicopters hovering overhead as forces mobilised.
The Long March: 60,000 Reach Rawalakot
On June 9, 2026, JKJAAC launched its Long March from Chumb, Bhimber. Despite roadblocks, arrests, and the preceding violence, more than 60,000 participants reportedly reached Rawalakot, according to the JKJAAC Human Rights Cell baseline report. The march was rooted in demands for Haq-e-Hukamrani (right to self-governance) and Haq-e-Malkiat (right to ownership), as well as implementation of agreements already signed with the Government of Pakistan and the Government of PaJK.
On June 10, JKJAAC’s Core Committee paused the march to prevent further bloodshed, while the sit-in in Rawalakot continued. The JKJAAC June 14 update notes that by June 13, public reporting and local sources confirmed that “sit-ins and large gatherings continued around Rawalakot, including Eidgah Ground.”
Blockade of Food and Medicine
The JKJAAC Human Rights Cell 14 June Situation Update Report elevates the blockade allegations to the level of a “humanitarian protection emergency.” Field reports as of June 14 allege that Pakistani security forces have blockaded major entry points to AJK, stopping the entry of “food, life-saving medicines and essential goods.”
The report estimates that “more than 50,000 people in Rawalakot city and more than 300,000 people in surrounding mountainous areas may be affected by restricted movement, shutdown of roads and inability to access food, medicine and essential supplies.”
These allegations corroborate and extend the account provided by Kanwal Bhalli, a Kashmiri resident of Ireland, in a written appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Bhalli identifies two critical routes as having been shut down: the Kohala Bridge Route, described as “the primary commercial artery connecting Islamabad to Muzaffarabad,” and the Azad Pattan Bridge Route, described as “the critical pipeline to Rawalakot.” Bhalli writes of “acute shortages of life-saving medications and basic dietary staples” resulting from the blockades, and calls them “a manufactured humanitarian crisis and the onset of a gradual famine.”
The JKJAAC 14 June report identifies seven categories of risk now facing the civilian population: denial of access to life-saving medicines; obstruction of ambulances and emergency care; food and essential goods shortages; people trapped under curfew-like conditions; intimidation of families, shopkeepers, journalists, and witnesses; destruction or concealment of evidence; and “escalation into wider civilian harm.”
It calls on the international community to “treat Rawalakot and the surrounding areas as a potential humanitarian protection emergency requiring immediate access, monitoring and de-escalation.”
Communications Blackout
Internet and mobile services were suspended across the region from June 5. Amnesty International confirmed the blackout lasted until at least 12 June. Dawn verified that the blackout had entered its second consecutive week. The JKJAAC Advisory Council dossier states it “prevented families from contacting relatives, obstructed emergency communication and limited access by independent observers and journalists.”
The effect on reporting has been severe. As one Kashmir Times account put it, “even seasoned correspondents have been dictating their reports over the phone,” while “fake news and rumours are going viral, both in India and Pakistan.”
Journalists Arrested and Detained
Amnesty International reported that journalist Sohrab Barkat was arrested under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act “for allegedly promoting or endorsing JKJAAC through his YouTube reporting,” and faces potential imprisonment for “allegedly spreading false information and promoting a banned organisation.” Lawyers boycotted the courts over the arrest of a senior colleague. Local activists in PaJK and those in the diaspora allege that Barkat and other journalists have been “unlawfully abducted and detained in undisclosed locations for documenting the military crackdown.”
Economic Reprisals: Expanding Targeting
The JKJAAC Human Rights Cell documentation records a pattern of economic retaliation that expanded as the crackdown continued. The JKJAAC Human Rights Team report records alleged “lock-breaking, vandalism and looting” of National Bakers/National Bakery, Aanyat Bakers, Freshco Bakers, and Zahid Khan grocery store in the main city Rawalakot/Toot Market area, as well as businesses reportedly associated with JKJAAC leadership including a book shop in Muzaffarabad, reportedly associated with Shoukat Nawaz Mir, and the Watan Furniture and Crockery Store in Samahni, District Bhimber, reportedly associated with Abid Aslam.
The 14 June JKJAAC update adds two further cases in Kotli City: Mr Zafar Malik’s Jewellery Shop and Malik Yaqoob Kashmiri Crockery Store, “reportedly sealed by Pakistani security agencies.” The report calls for inspection of sealing orders, seizure memos, CCTV, inventories, witness statements, and legal remedy records for each affected business.
International Law
The JKJAAC Human Rights Cell reports note that Pakistan is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against Torture (CAT), both ratified in 2010 according to OHCHR records. The 14 June update maps the alleged conduct, including the renewed crackdown at Dharake/Eidgah Ground, against ICCPR Articles 6 (right to life), 7 (prohibition of torture and ill-treatment), 9 (liberty and security of person), 14 (fair trial), 19 (freedom of expression), 21 (peaceful assembly), and 22 (freedom of association), as well as CAT Articles 2, 12, and 16.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, but has been divided between them since their independence from British rule, and is considered highly sensitive by the Pakistani military and government.
JKJAAC Demands
The 14 June JKJAAC Situation Update Report sets out twelve urgent demands to Pakistan and PaJK authorities, including: an immediate halt to all firing, shelling, raids and coercive arrests at Dharake/Eidgah Ground and all affected areas; the creation of “an immediate humanitarian corridor into Rawalakot and surrounding mountainous areas for food, life-saving medicines, ambulances, doctors, journalists and human rights monitors”; disclosure of the whereabouts of Bilal Ashraf and all missing persons; the withdrawal of JKJAAC’s proscription; and the full implementation of the signed agreements, including the Muzaffarabad Agreement of 3–4 October 2025, through “a written, time-bound roadmap.”
The report also calls for the authorities to “publicly announce an empowered negotiation delegation of respected elder statesmen and women to meet the JKJAAC Core Committee at Rawalakot” - a demand that reflects the movement’s decision to pause the Long March in order to create space for dialogue, a pause that has, according to the 14 June report, been met with renewed force rather than engagement.
Recommendations in the 14 June report to international actors include: urgent communications from UN Special Procedures and OHCHR from mandates on extrajudicial executions, peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, torture, human rights defenders, and enforced disappearances; immediate access requests from international humanitarian organisations to assess food, medicine, and hospital capacity; and briefings from the UK Parliament, EU Parliament and US Congress to their respective foreign ministries.
With elections seven weeks away, JKJAAC leaders on the run or underground, a region sealed behind an information blackout, and a new crackdown alleged at the very sit-in that had paused to allow negotiations, the situation is at a critical threshold.
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