Pakistan-administered Kashmir shuts down after deadly protests kill 24

Streets, shops and public services have gone quiet across Pakistan-administered Kashmir after nearly two weeks of unrest left at least 24 people dead, exposing a deeper crisis of legitimacy for authorities in a strategically sensitive border region. The shutdown has turned the violence into more than a local protest wave: it is now a warning about how quickly governance failures can spill into political paralysis.

The protests have been driven by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee, a movement that has pressed a 38-point charter of demands centered on lower electricity tariffs, wheat subsidies and the abolition of 12 legislative assembly seats reserved for refugees from Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir living in Pakistan. That refugee-seat dispute has become the core of the standoff. Regional authorities accepted 37 of the committee’s 38 demands, but left the last one unresolved, prolonging the confrontation.

Tensions escalated sharply after authorities on June 5 designated the committee as a proscribed organization. Amnesty International said the crackdown that followed included an internet shutdown, mass arbitrary arrests and deadly use of force, and warned that the rights situation in the region had deteriorated further. Reuters reported that cities and towns were already brought to a standstill on June 9 after a strike call by the banned alliance, showing that the shutdown now in place on June 19 is part of a widening sequence of unrest rather than a one-day disruption.

The human toll has been severe. Government officials said at least 20 civilians were killed between June 6 and June 14. Regional police chief Liaqat Ali Malik said four officers were also killed, 97 were wounded and 515 people were detained. Earlier in the unrest, at least 11 people were killed and more than 70 were injured in clashes before a rally, while thousands of JAAC supporters were reported camped on the outskirts of Rawalakot, about 100 km south of Muzaffarabad.

The dispute has roots in earlier negotiations as well. An agreement was signed in Muzaffarabad on October 4, 2025, between the federal government, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government and the committee, and the same seat issue had already triggered a shutter-down and wheel-jam strike announcement in August 2025. India’s foreign ministry has condemned the violence and called for accountability, underscoring the cross-border sensitivities attached to a crisis that now threatens markets, transport, banking and public confidence in Islamabad’s control.