Opinion | What The Rawalakot Bloodshed Says About Pakistan And Its 'Azad Kashmir' Narrative

Updated: Jul 30, 2026 15:01 pm IST Published On Jul 30, 2026 14:59 pm IST Last Updated On Jul 30, 2026 15:01 pm IST

Published On Jul 30, 2026 14:59 pm IST

Last Updated On Jul 30, 2026 15:01 pm IST

"India mein kaha jaata hai, 'Dar ke aage jeet hai'. Pakistan mein shayad kahani kuch aur hai: 'Ghar ke aage jeep hai'."

(In India, it's said, 'There's victory beyond fear'. Pakistan's story is different: 'There's a jeep in front of the house.'")

A young Pakistani woman's video on X captures, in a chilling sentence, the dark crisis unfolding in her country. The slightest dissent is crushed by security forces. Protesters simply disappear. The Balochs have paid the price of dissent with the disappearance of their young men. Prominent human rights activist Dr Mahrang Baloch, who spearheaded massive peaceful anti-disappearance marches across the country, was recently convicted by an anti-terrorism court in Quetta and sentenced to life imprisonment.

While the world watches the political turmoil in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) from a distance, Pakistan's own citizens are confronting something far more immediate: the power of the state on their streets. The images emerging from PoK are difficult to ignore: streets stained with blood, protesters lying motionless, grieving families searching for loved ones, and heavily armed security personnel confronting civilians. They present a picture sharply at odds with Pakistan's longstanding claim on international platforms - that it is the defender of the democratic aspirations of the people of Jammu & Kashmir.

The scale of the violence........

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