Kashmir clashes have killed 31 since June, main UN rights chief Volker Turk to enchantment for calm
Printed On 17 Jul 2026
The United Nations human rights chief has referred to as for an unbiased investigation into lethal unrest in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
On Friday, the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, urged Islamabad to launch “immediate, thorough and neutral investigations” into all civilian and safety drive deaths. At the least 31 individuals have been killed in clashes since final month, within the run-up to regional elections on the finish of this month.
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The unrest has concerned the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), an umbrella group of merchants and activists.
Whereas the motion initially shaped to protest towards rising meals costs and utility tariffs, the present flashpoint centres on a authorized dispute over legislative seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees. The JAAC calls for the abolition of these seats, arguing they permit non-residents to change native political outcomes.
UN officers expressed alarm over Pakistan’s resolution to categorise the JAAC as a proscribed “terrorist” organisation beneath home anti-terrorism legal guidelines.
The worldwide physique warned that utilising anti-terror mechanisms to criminalise peaceable meeting and implement widespread web blackouts raises extreme freedom of affiliation considerations.
The disaster has amplified the long-running diplomatic feud between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan, which have each claimed the disputed Himalayan territory in full since their independence in 1947.
In line with the Pakistani newspaper Daybreak, the disaster hit a lethal new peak on July 14 during intense clashes in the Poonch division, the place safety forces tried to clear roadblocks forward of a deliberate JAAC “lengthy march” to Muzaffarabad. The escalation resulted in 9 deaths – seven civil activists and two legislation enforcement officers.
Defending the state actions throughout the violence, Poonch Divisional Commissioner Waheed Khan instructed Reuters that protesters had blocked a safety convoy and attacked officers. “Police and safety officers responded in self-defence.”
In New Delhi, the Ministry of Exterior Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal mentioned in an official assertion launched on Wednesday that the unrest was a “direct consequence of Pakistan’s decades-long systemic exploitation” of the area.
Turk has appealed for instant calm, pushing for “significant and inclusive political dialogue” over security-led measures to defuse deep-seated grievances relating to regional autonomy and inflation.
