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The protests led by the Joint Awami Action Committee have convulsed Pakistan-administered Kashmir with violence that has left at least 40 people dead including 34 protesters and six security personnel in the run-up to regional elections a BBC investigation published this week found. Al Jazeera reported that protest leaders claimed more than 30 supporters were killed in clashes around the first round of voting on July 27 while the Guardian cited local groups that accused Pakistani security forces of firing on unarmed demonstrators over two days. The demonstrations which first flared in Rawalakot spread as authorities blocked marches toward the regional capital Muzaffarabad and imposed restrictions that protesters described as excessive. According to a Wikipedia entry on the group the Joint Awami Action Committee which is commonly known as the JAAC after that point emerged from earlier unrest over similar economic grievances.
One mother told the BBC that her only son was shot standing up for justice during the Rawalakot demonstrations that have gripped the city of roughly 4.5 million residents across the broader region. Asma said “We were only asking for our rights. We are not terrorists.” She added that no mother could ask for a better son and that he knew there were risks but believed standing up for justice was important while noting he used to say that dying for a just cause was an honour. Another relative identified as Salman described his youngest brother as loved by everyone and expressed both loss and pride that the victim gave his life while standing up for the rights of the people without fighting or attacking anyone. A retired soldier named Ayub who lost his son told the BBC he had lived through the martial law periods of General Zia-ul-Haq and General Pervez Musharraf but had never seen anything like the current extreme injustice.
The JAAC which Al Jazeera described as a grassroots umbrella organisation that surfaced in 2023 over skyrocketing electricity bills and flour shortages issued a 38-point charter of demands in September and October 2025 that called for subsidies equivalent to those in Gilgit-Baltistan and tariffs based on the production cost of local hydroelectricity from facilities such as the Mangla Dam. A separate Al Jazeera report from June 2026 noted that the movement had escalated into mass demonstrations across major towns with the group positioning itself as an interlocutor on issues ranging from corruption investigations to infrastructure and the abolition of certain reserved seats. Wikipedia data on the JAAC places the origins of the latest wave in May 2023 when residents protested widespread flour smuggling and acute shortages of subsidised wheat alongside high power costs that have persisted despite an October agreement the protesters say was never fully implemented.
Pakistani authorities have rejected allegations that security forces fired indiscriminately on peaceful crowds according to statements carried by the BBC and have instead accused the JAAC of including armed elements that attacked law enforcement personnel threatened public safety and obstructed lawful authority during the election period. The regional government banned the JAAC in June 2026 labelling it a foreign-funded terrorist outfit a charge the group denies while insisting it is funded by the Pakistan-administered Kashmir diaspora and remains committed to non-violent advocacy. Umar Nazir a JAAC committee member told the BBC he believed certain elements under government control may have infiltrated the ranks to justify a crackdown though he offered no definitive evidence that violence originated from the protesters’ side.
In Rawalakot the BBC correspondent observed shuttered shops food shortages that forced rice smuggling by motorbike and makeshift clinics where one doctor treated between 50 and 60 critically injured patients including 15 to 20 with gunshot wounds as many residents avoided main hospitals out of fear. Most of those killed or wounded were aged between 15 and 35 with few over 40 the reporting noted amid an atmosphere that remained tense with blocked roads felled trees and security checkpoints that the authorities said were necessary to facilitate order. Thousands of demonstrators had camped at sit-in sites around Rawalakot in the days leading to a planned march on Muzaffarabad after the expiry of a deadline for the government to meet the charter according to posts carried by Firstpost and Tribune Trends.
The unrest forms part of a pattern of economic discontent in the region where Public Authority for Civil Information equivalent figures and multilateral assessments have long highlighted dependence on subsidised staples and hydroelectric resources that generate power for other parts of Pakistan yet yield limited local benefit. Al Jazeera assessments from 2025 and 2026 placed the JAAC at the centre of successive waves that began with complaints over inflation and excessive government spending before broadening into calls for social welfare and political reforms. As protests continue with further mobilisation expected the death toll figures from the BBC the Guardian and Al Jazeera have not been fully reconciled by independent verification given access restrictions and communication blackouts reported in the affected areas.
