Description: Eleven people were killed and 70 other were injured as Pakistani police and paramilitary forces clashed with protesters from a banned alliance of civil society groups called the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC). The clashes took place in Pakistani administered Kashmir province where the JAAC has been calling for increased government attention and addressing issues such as rising cost of living expenses and providing the region with various economic subsidies. JAAC previously requested from the local government to not include votes from Indian immigrants in the region, potentially stoking renewed tensions with India. The last deadly clashes in Pakistani administered Kashmir happened last year in Oct, when the local Pakistani government imposed a media blackout.
Impact: Renewed social and political tensions in the Jammu region of the Kashmir province could likely lead to further disintegration of Pakistan’s frail security apparatus and could escalate tensions with India. JAAC has been actively protesting against the regional government since 2023, which likely indicates longstanding disputes with Pakistan’s local government and a wider scale of socio – economic disparities from the other regions in the country. Pakistan is currently faced with multi vectored domestic insurgencies such as the Balochistan Liberation Army in the southeast, the Pakistani Taliban on the border with Afghanistan and consistent sabre rattling from India which could likely lead to renewed tensions with its neighbors, after the most recent developments in the Kashmir region.