PoK: 25,000 rally near LoC, vow to cross into Indian Jammu and Kashmir

The unrest that has continued for over three months in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) has reached a serious point. On the 110th day of the agitation, which began on June 9, the Awami Action Committee (AAC) called a large public meeting in Mandhol village. The sit-in, held just 7 kilometres from the Line of Control, was attended by more than 25,000 women and men.

At the gathering, senior AAC leader Sardar Aman Khan directly attacked the Pakistani army and administration. He said Pakistan had completely stopped ration supplies to the people of PoK for the past three months. He announced that the plan was to remove the Line of Control (LoC) permanently and move into the Poonch and Mendhar areas of Indian Jammu and Kashmir.

When Sardar Aman Khan put questions to the crowd from the stage, more than 25,000 people responded in unison with loud chants of "yes". People themselves backed the call to remove the LoC and hold a sit-in in Poonch and Mendhar on the Indian side of the border. This aggressive stance by the people of PoK is claimed to have alarmed senior officers of the Pakistani army and the ISI.

On the ration shortage and alleged excesses by the Pakistani army, the report says the Pakistan government has completely halted ration supplies to PoK for the past three months. Earlier, people in the area used to buy ration and essential goods from the Mendhar market in Indian Jammu and Kashmir. But Pakistan fenced the Line of Control and forced people to depend on markets in Islamabad instead. Now, when people go to buy ration, they are stopped at the border and forced to surrender. Angered by this, the people have raised their voice directly against what they call Pakistan's 78-year illegal occupation.

Aman Khan also spoke from the stage about what he called the Pakistani army's cowardice and 80 years of exploitation. He said that earlier, when there was firing at the Line of Control, Pakistani soldiers would hide while local people protected them. In return, he said, the Pakistani government gave the local population only unemployment, a lack of hospitals and schools, and violence. He also alleged that more than 100 people had been killed after firing on unarmed people who were demanding their basic rights.

On alleged election irregularities and what he called the puppet government in Muzaffarabad, he said the political situation in PoK has worsened. Elections were recently due for 45 assembly seats, but voting could not take place on 7 seats because of large-scale agitation and sharp protests in Poonch and Sudhnoti districts. Voting was held on the remaining 38 seats, and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's party, PML-N, was declared the winner on 25 seats. Aman Khan called this victory outright manipulation and fraud, and said Pakistan could not hold elections on the remaining seats without the people's consent.

He also targeted the government sitting in Muzaffarabad, calling it a "puppet government". He said this government could not even speak directly about the deaths of more than 100 civilians killed in firing by the Pakistani army. He asked what such a government, which cannot protect its own people, could say on a bigger issue like the Line of Control.

Several generations in PoK have lived under what he described as the oppressive and unchecked rule of the Pakistani army. He said people there have now come to understand that they will not get peace and prosperity until they stand up against Pakistan's illegal occupation. Over the past three months, Pakistan has effectively imposed a war on innocent people there, he said, adding that every citizen of PoK is now ready to fight this injustice and subjugation to the end.