The valleys of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), often described as idyllic and scenic, are now drenched in blood. For over a week, protests led by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) have engulfed Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot, Dheerkot, and Mirpur, demanding nothing more radical than affordable electricity, subsidized flour, and dignity.
These are the most basic of rights, yet they have been answered with bullets, curfews, and a communications blackout.
Reports from the ground are grim. At least 10 civilians, including young men in Dheerkot and Muzaffarabad, have been shot dead by Pakistani forces. More than 100 others lie injured, victims of live ammunition, tear gas, and batons.
Paramilitary troops from mainland Pakistan—outsiders in every sense—have been deployed against Kashmiri Muslims protesting the very exploitation that sustains Pakistan’s power grid and fills its treasury.
For a region producing nearly a third of Pakistan’s hydroelectricity, residents still pay exorbitant tariffs, often ten times higher than production costs, while the elites in Islamabad and “Azad Kashmir” enjoy free power, free fuel, and unchecked privileges.
Shaukat Nawaz Mir, the JAAC leader, has shown bullets allegedly fired by police—hard evidence of state-sanctioned violence against unarmed civilians. Yet, despite the killings, despite entire towns paralyzed under curfew, despite 4.5 million people cut off from the outside world by a deliberate communications blackout, the story of PoK has barely penetrated global consciousness.
Where is the outrage?
The World’s Selective Hearing
What is unfolding in PoK is not just a story of local grievances but of international hypocrisy. We live in a world where hashtags trend within hours, where causes go viral across continents, yet the massacre of Muslim civilians in PoK has barely stirred a whisper. The selective outrage is deafening.
Consider this: when a flotilla headed to Gaza was intercepted, it dominated headlines across Europe and the Middle East. Politicians, activists, and journalists raced to express indignation.
But when Pakistani forces opened fire on Kashmiri Muslims—when eight, then ten, and perhaps more were martyred—there was silence. No emergency UN session. No Arab League declaration. No European Parliament resolution.
Why is the death of a Palestinian in Gaza a global headline, but the death of a Kashmiri Muslim in Muzaffarabad or Dheerkot a footnote, if acknowledged at all? Both are victims, both cry out for dignity, and yet the international community decides whose suffering matters.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), so quick to issue statements against India whenever an incident occurs in Jammu and Kashmir, has not uttered a single word about the massacre in PoK. Not one. The same OIC that rushes to condemn Israel or India now averts its gaze when the oppressor is Pakistan.
And what about the Arab states that endlessly invoke the plight of Muslims worldwide? Why is there silence when those Muslims are being gunned down by Pakistan’s Rangers in the streets of Muzaffarabad?
Where are the imams, the scholars, the ministers who thunder about Gaza every Friday? The hypocrisy is as transparent as it is shameful.
Europe and the West are no less guilty. The same capitals that lit up their monuments in blue and yellow to stand with Ukraine against Russian aggression have shown no solidarity with Kashmiris being slaughtered in PoK.
The same leaders who call for accountability in Gaza or speak of “rules-based order” when it suits their geopolitical interests remain mute when Pakistan crushes dissent in a territory it falsely labels “Azad”—free.
Facts That Cannot Be Ignored
Numbers tell the story more starkly than rhetoric ever could. In the past week alone, at least 10 civilians have been killed and over 100 injured. This follows previous cycles of violence in 2023 and 2024, when protests over flour shortages and electricity tariffs were met with state firepower, leaving multiple civilians dead.
The pattern is clear: demands for rights in PoK are answered with repression.
Economically, the injustice is staggering. The region generates 30% of Pakistan’s hydroelectricity, yet locals pay some of the highest electricity tariffs in the entire country—Rs40-50 per unit, compared to production costs of Rs4-7.
Pakistan owes the region at least Rs370 billion in royalties, but instead of repayment, Islamabad sends Rangers and federal police.
Politically, Kashmiri Muslims remain sidelined. Twelve seats in the so-called “Azad” assembly are reserved not for residents, but for refugees from Indian-administered Kashmir—allowing Islamabad to manipulate outcomes.
Add to this the perks enjoyed by politicians and bureaucrats—free electricity, fuel, and luxury allowances—while ordinary families cannot afford bread.
This is the systemic discrimination the JAAC charter lays bare. It is not separatism; it is survival. Yet Pakistani authorities have chosen to treat these protests not as cries for justice, but as threats to be crushed with bullets.
A Call for Consistency
From a European perspective, the silence on PoK is not only morally indefensible but strategically foolish. The West cannot claim to champion human rights in Ukraine while ignoring massacres in Muzaffarabad.
The Arab world, Iran, and Turkey cannot speak of an Islamic ummah while remaining blind to Pakistan’s oppression of Kashmiri Muslims. The OIC cannot lecture India while refusing to condemn Pakistan.
If we truly believe in universal rights, then we must be consistent. A child killed in Dheerkot is no less human than a child killed in Gaza. A protester bleeding on the streets of Rawalakot deserves the same solidarity as a demonstrator in Kyiv.
The cries of Kashmiris under Pakistani repression must not be drowned out simply because their oppressors are seen as allies in Islamabad.
The people of PoK are demanding electricity they can afford, wheat they can eat, representation they can trust. They are not asking for secession, but for dignity. Yet the Pakistani state answers them with violence.
The international community has mechanisms—it imposes sanctions, initiates investigations, calls for accountability. It has done so for Ukraine, for Myanmar, for Gaza. Why not for PoK? Is Kashmiri blood worth less? Is Pakistani repression somehow more palatable?
No More Silence
As a European, I cannot accept this hypocrisy. As a human being, I cannot accept the silence. The killings in PoK are not an internal Pakistani matter—they are a crime against humanity, one that demands the attention of the world.
It is time for the United Nations to investigate. It is time for the European Union to speak. It is time for the Arab world, Turkey, and Iran to find its voice. And it is time for the OIC to prove that its commitment to Muslim lives extends beyond political convenience.
Kashmiris in PoK deserve the same rights and protections that the world demands for Ukrainians, Palestinians, or any other oppressed people. Their blood is not cheaper. Their cries are not quieter. They are simply unheard.
The world must hear them now. And it must act—not tomorrow, not when it is convenient, but today.
Because silence, in the face of massacre, is nothing less than complicity.