KARACHI:
Prime Minister Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore has offered to resume talks with the JAAC and is calling on protesters to return to the dialogue table.
Meanwhile, fatal clashes in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) have sparked competing accounts of casualties, government complaints and political legitimacy, with official sources confirming at least seven deaths.
According to official statements, recent unrest in areas including Rawalakot involved confrontations between law enforcement personnel and activists associated with the banned Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC).
Authorities said the situation escalated during a planned protracted march attempt over the weekend, triggering heavy security deployment and subsequent clashes on the ground.
Police sources claim that six security personnel, including three from the Rawalakot police and one member of the Frontier Constabulary, were killed in separate incidents since June 6.
Officials further claim that three protesters lost their lives due to internal firing during confrontations.
Civil society representatives and political observers claim that the absence of real-time reporting from remote regions of AJK has created an “information vacuum” that allows unverified claims and heightened speculation to circulate widely on digital platforms.
“There is a growing gap between the reality on the ground and online narratives,” said a senior journalist familiar with the region, noting that limited mobility of media personnel has historically contributed to information asymmetry in the area.
The confrontation reportedly intensified when protesters tried to continue with a long march towards Rawalakot, prompting security deployments and resulting in violent clashes.
Authorities maintained that law enforcement showed “restraint and a proportionate response”.
Dialogue with forbidden committee
Meanwhile, as tensions continue, competing political narratives have emerged over whether dialogue with the banned committee is legally and politically tenable.
Former chief justice of the region, Chaudhry Ibrahim Zia, said engagement remains the only sustainable option. “Negotiation is the only solution to any conflict. It can take place with any party,” he said, stressing the need for restraint given the region’s sensitivity.
Similarly, representatives of the Kashmir Bar Association argued that legal designation does not preclude political engagement aimed at restoring stability. Senior lawyer Haroon Riaz Mughal said that even opposing sides in armed conflicts eventually engage in negotiations, adding that “dialogue is essential for peace and long-term stability”.
Legal fraternity members and regional bar councils have jointly called for de-escalation and urged stakeholders to pursue constitutional and political solutions.
A press conference held in Islamabad also expressed concern over the worsening situation and demanded immediate dialogue between authorities and protest leadership.
JAAC, which organized the protests and strike, had presented a comprehensive charter of demands, including an end to the privileges enjoyed by the ruling elite, the abolition of 12 assembly spaces reserved for refugees and the abolition of the quota system.
On the other hand, the establishment and its representative political parties claim that removal of these seats is possible only if the demanding party participates in elections and enters the assembly through electoral victory.
It is practically difficult because whichever side the 12 seats from Punjab and Sindh lean towards will determine the outcome of the election and the 12 members will never vote against their own existence.
This raises the question: what is more important, the clear will of the people or the rituals of any political system, democracy in this case?
This is therefore a moment for all sections of society to apply reason and allow a functional balance to emerge between its various components, with the public, the assembly and the armed forces each playing their constitutionally defined roles in ensuring a stable and balanced society.
Meanwhile, political developments suggest an attempt to de-escalate tensions. Prime Minister Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore has offered to resume talks with the JAAC and is calling on protesters to return to the dialogue table.
“The people protesting in AJK are our own. No doubt about it. Agents and traitors? I don’t think so. Disillusioned? Naturally. Deluded? Surely,” the AJK PM stated in an X post.
“Come and sit with us. This is not a problem that cannot be solved at the cost of human life,” Kashmir’s prime minister said in a televised interview, adding that previous talks had collapsed over unresolved clauses.
Rathore also acknowledged that while some protest demands, especially related to refugee seats, require careful review, resolution must come through discussion rather than confrontation.
Separately, a group of British parliamentarians reportedly wrote to the British Foreign Office expressing concern over the situation in AJK and calling for diplomatic engagement.
