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Pakistan Occupied Kasmir
A brutal crackdown by Pakistani security forces on protesters in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) over the last two days has reportedly left more than 30 civilians dead and over 33 injured, government sources said on Wednesday. The Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) has been leading the protests amid local body elections in the PoK. The PoK has been witnessing massive protests since last month over inflated living costs, alleged administrative apathy and political discrimination and atrocities against minorities. New Delhi on Tuesday described the elections in PoK as an attempt by Islamabad to camouflage its illegal occupation and hide its "grave" human rights violations in the region. Pakistani security forces used lethal force against the protesters during JAAC's long march from Rawalakote to Muzaffarabad and the crackdown reportedly resulted in the deaths of over 30 civilians and left over 33 protesters injured, the sources said. Among the deceased is Usman Nazir, the brother o
India has strongly objected to The New York Times for describing Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) as "Pakistani Kashmir", reaffirming that the territory remains an integral part of the country.Taking exception to the headline used in a recent report by the American newspaper, the Indian Embassy in the United States described the terminology as "misleading and incorrect".In a post on X, the embassy said, "There is no Pakistani Kashmir, only Pakistan-occupied Kashmir".Reiterating New Delhi's long-standing position, the diplomatic mission stated that the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are, and will "always remain an integral and inalienable part of India".The embassy further accused Islamabad of illegally holding onto parts of these territories, alleging that Pakistan continues "using violence against the occupied people".The Indian response followed a report published by The New York Times covering recent unrest and local elections in Pakistan-occupied ..
At least 14 activists of the banned Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) were killed and more than two dozen injured in clashes with law-enforcement personnel during the first phase of elections for the so-called legislative assembly in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), the organisation claimed on Tuesday. Law enforcement authorities in the region disputed the death toll and accused JAAC protesters of opening fire on security personnel. The JAAC has been holding a series of protests in PoK since last month over 12 contentious seats of the so-called regional legislative assembly. It alleges that the establishment manoeuvres these seats to install a prime minister of its choosing. India on July 14 had described the protests in PoK as a "direct consequence" of Islamabad's decades-long "systemic exploitation and administrative oppression" in areas under its "forcible" occupation and criticised the police brutality on the protesters. India maintains that the entire Union Territories of Ja
India on Thursday hit out at Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar for raising the Kashmir issue and suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty at an ASEAN-related meeting in Manila and accused Islamabad of spreading falsehoods and diverting attention from its record of sponsoring terrorism. In his address at the ministerial meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Dar said the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty has to be handled through dialogue and adherence to international law. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar represented India at the meeting. "India categorically rejects the baseless and unwarranted comments made by the Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister of Pakistan," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. "It is no surprise that a multilateral forum has once again been cynically exploited by Pakistan to amplify falsehoods, peddle state-sponsored disinformation, and divert attention from its own well-documented record of sponsoring cross-border .
After days of violent unrest in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the federal government and protesters on Saturday signed an agreement to end the ongoing demonstrations that have left at least 10 people dead and hundreds injured. Violence marred the peace of the region due to a strike, which began on September 29 when talks broke down between officials and leaders of the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC), a representative body of protestors. The protestors had issued a charter of 38 points, urging the authorities to accept them or they would take to the roads, which they did eventually, leading to violent clashes with police that killed at least 10 people, including three police personnel. Hundreds of policemen and civilians were injured in the protests. As the unrest widened, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif dispatched a high-powered delegation to Muzaffarabad on Wednesday to find a negotiated solution to the problem. The team, led by former premier Raja Pervaiz
Pakistan-based terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) have begun relocating their bases to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir in the wake of India's Operation Sindoor, sources in the defence and military establishment said on Friday. The decision reflects a significant "tactical adaptation" by these groups, which now view Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) as vulnerable to Indian strikes, while KPK offers greater depth due to its proximity to the Afghan frontier, they said. Under Operation Sindoor, India destroyed terrorism centres in Bahawalpur, Muridke, Muzaffarabad and several other places. In response to the Pahalgam terror attack, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terrorist infrastructure in territories controlled by Pakistan. The strikes triggered four days of intense clashes that ended with an understanding on stopping the military actions on May 10. "The inputs indicate that this movement by the terror
Operation Sindoor conveyed to the world with great clarity that India will act against terrorism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in a statement in line with the UN Security Council calling for those responsible for the Pahalgam attacks to be brought to justice. "What is important for us in the Quad statement, as also the statement that the Security Council had issued on April 25, is that the perpetrators of terrorism must be held accountable. They must be brought to justice, Jaishankar said during a press conference in Washington on Wednesday. And that's important because we then have to communicate to the world what we did. On May 7, the objective of Operation Sindoor is that if there are terrorist attacks, we will act against the perpetrators, the supporters, the financiers, and the enablers. So that message, I think, was conveyed with great clarity, he said. A joint statement issued by Quad Foreign Ministers -- Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Foreign .
At last two police officers and four Taliban militants were killed in an overnight shootout in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), officials said on Thursday. The clash followed after the security forces, on a tip-off about the presence of militants, launched an operation in the Hussain Kot forest area in the Rawalakot district of the region. The Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Rawalakot, Riaz Mughal, told the media that the police launched a raid after a tip-off regarding the presence of terrorists in the area. He said that the terrorists were hiding in a cave and were surrounded, but when the police attempted to apprehend them, one of the terrorists hurled a grenade at the officers, prompting retaliatory fire. In the exchange, all four terrorists were neutralised, he said, adding that three were identified as Zarnosh Naseem, his brother Gibran Naseem and Ulfat, while the fourth was unidentified yet. Mughal confirmed that two police officers, Gulzar and Tariq Bashir, were killed
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is a part of India and "we will take it", Home Minister Amit Shah asserted on Saturday as he castigated the Congress for trying to "frighten us" by saying that the neighbouring country possesses atom bombs. "The Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) hamara hai, hamara rahega aur hum ise lekar rahenge (PoK is ours and it will remain ours. We will take it," Shah told a rally at Amb in Una district in support of Union minister Anurag Thakur, the BJP candidate from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat. Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already won 310 seats in the first five phases of Lok Sabha polls and the target of '400-paar' would be achieved in the sixth and the last phases, while Congress Rahul Gandhi would be restrained at just 40 seats. He also mocked the Congress by asking the crowd at the rally as to who will be the prime minister, if the grand old party comes to power. He also appealed to people to make the BJP victorious in the six assembly seat ..
India on Friday said the protests witnessed in several parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) are a "natural consequence" of Islamabad's continued policy of systemic plundering of resources from the region that remains under its "forcible and illegal" occupation. India also asserted that the entire Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh "have been, are and shall always remain integral parts of India". Violent protests erupted in PoK over rising costs of food, fuel and essential utilities as Pakistan reels under a severe economic crisis. "We have seen reports on protests in several areas of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir," external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing. He was responding to a question on the protests in PoK. "We believe that it is a natural consequence of Pakistan's continued policy of systemic plundering of resources from these territories which remain under its forcible and illegal occupation," Jaiswal .
At least three people were killed and six others injured when security forces opened fire on protesters during clashes with paramilitary Rangers in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's capital Muzaffarabad which has been rocked by protests against high prices of wheat flour and inflated electricity bills, a media report said on Tuesday. The paramilitary Rangers, which were called in to maintain law and order in the disputed region, came under attack while moving out of the region, the Dawn newspaper reported. Instead of exiting via Brarkot, the village bordering Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the 19-vehicle convoy, including five trucks, chose to exit the region from Kohala, it said. As the convoy reached Muzaffarabad in a charged atmosphere, it was pelted with rocks near Shorran da Nakka village, to which they responded with teargas and firing, the report said. After entering the city through the Western Bypass, the Rangers were welcomed with rocks again, prompting them to use teargas and bullets. Th