Syed Mushahid Hussain Naqvi
Pakistan-administered Kashmir, or AJK, is undergoing one of its most serious crises in recent times. A shutter-down and wheel-jam strike, led by the Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), has paralyzed daily life across the region. Markets, shops, and transport remain shuttered, rallies continue under heavy security, and mobile and internet services have been suspended, severing residents from the outside world at a critical moment. The unrest has already claimed nine lives and left dozens injured – a tragic reminder that coercion cannot substitute for governance.
At the heart of the unrest lies JAAC’s 38-point charter of demands, which channels public anger over soaring electricity tariffs, rising food prices, and entrenched elite privileges. Despite multiple rounds of talks with federal and local authorities, the deadlock persists. What began as issue-based agitation has evolved into one of the most widespread protest movements the region has witnessed in years, exposing a deepening crisis of representation and legitimacy.
In the backdrop, faced with mounting dissent, the political leadership in AJK has resorted to theatrics rather than offering meaningful solutions. The alleged “cipher document” linking the protests to India first surfaced on September 16, when former AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan unveiled it during an all-parties conference of Kashmiri political leaders in Islamabad. Several participants quickly dismissed the cipher as a conspiracy, warning that such distractions were designed to undermine and derail the ongoing popular protest movement.
Coupled with plans for pro-state rallies under the banner of Pakistan Zindabad, the move was clearly intended to redirect popular anger outward and recast domestic dissent in AJK as a foreign conspiracy. But the gambit failed. Far from instilling public confidence, it underscored the fragility of governance in the region.
By framing demands for economic relief and political accountability as externally orchestrated, leaders revealed their unwillingness – or inability – to engage substantively with the grievances fueling mass mobilization. For ordinary citizens, the cipher drama was less proof of foreign meddling than confirmation of elite deflection and denial.
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