While the world remains a passive observer, the staggering violence in Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK) this week has upended the policies of Pakistan’s deep State that has for long used instruments of terrorism to wage an asymmetric war against India on the Kashmir issue.

Pakistan faces the biggest challenge it has in decades to its positioning on Kashmir. On the one hand, Pakistan’s army has, for years, nurtured terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, pushing in their men across the Line of Control, into India, to unleash atrocities in the name of so-called “freedom fighters”. Now, confronted with an uprising in its own backyard, Islamabad has abandoned all pretense of being interested in civil liberties or any kind of freedom, inflicting horrific brutalities on political protesters.

There were bodies lying in pools of blood on the roads of Rawalakot and Mirpur, with at least 40 unarmed civilians reported to have been killed in firing by Pakistan’s security forces on civilians. The protests are being led by a group called the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) that has demanded the abolishment of 12 seats in the local legislature that are reserved for “refugees” from India. The Kashmiris in PoJK say this is an euphemism used by those........

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