Islamabad, Oct 1 — The recent so-called elections held in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), which continues to remain paralysed even weeks after the final ballots were cast, have pushed this highly volatile, mountain-fringed occupied territory to the precipice of a "historic breakdown", with people threatening to breach the Line of Control (LoC). a report has detailed.
"A heavy-handed campaign of state violence against a grassroots civil rights movement has completely hollowed out the political process. What began months ago as economic agitation over flour subsidies and skyrocketing electricity tariffs has transformed into a dangerous geopolitical crisis. Desperate and angry, local residents are now threatening to shatter decades of strategic defence by breaching the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC) that divides the region from India," a report in South Asia Press mentioned.
Hamza Naseer (34), a local trader in PoK's Rawalakot, whose storefront was damaged during recent clashes, said that the election did not change anything and "only gave a violent regime a false sense of legitimacy."
"They came into our towns with federal paramilitaries, cut our internet, and fired live ammunition into unarmed marches. We are being treated like subjects under a foreign occupation. If Islamabad keeps choking us, we have no choice but to break the fences and cross the border. Let them shoot us at the Line of Control instead," South Asia Press quoted Naseer as saying.
In recent months, PoK witnessed the most extensive confrontation between the local population and the Pakistani state in decades, with deadly violence, suspension of the internet, and police brutality. The protests, which initially began over increasing prices of electricity and essential commodities, transformed into a movement calling for political reforms, greater accountability, and representative government.
In response to the protests, Pakistan's paramilitary forces locked down major urban hubs like Muzaffarabad and Mirpur, imposed internet blackouts and sweeping media crackdown that has largely prohibited independent journalists from reporting about the unrest in PoK.
The systemic nature of the breakdown was visible last week as PoK's legislative assembly elected Najeeb Naqi Khan to the ceremonial post of president to portray stability while seven of the occupied territory's parliamentary seats remain vacant.
"The political elite are voting in secure rooms while the streets are covered in tear gas,” South Asia Press quoted Maryam Bibi, a schoolteacher from Muzaffarabad, as saying.
"They tell us we are free, but they kill us for asking for fair votes and basic rights. The border fences used to terrify us. Now, looking across the Line of Control seems like our only exit," she added.