‘Collapsed’: Roadblocks, internet blackout leave Pakistani Kashmir in limbo

Published 24 July 2026 · politics

Residents describe mounting hardship, as internet restrictions and road closures stretch into a second month before elections. Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-administered Kashmir — Zaheer Iqbal remembers exactly how much fuel it took to save his brother’s life. First, 2.5 litres to drive from his hilltop village of Keri Kot to the government hospital in Hajira, more than 10km (6 miles) away, a journey that took an hour. Then another five litres, brought by a cousin who drove more than 60km (37 miles) from Kotli city in a two-hour trip, so there was enough petrol to continue to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad. It was the middle of the night in mid-June when Iqbal’s elder brother collapsed with chest pain in their village in Poonch Division, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. With no ambulance service reaching Keri Kot, where most people travel on motorcycle or on foot, Iqbal, his two sons and other relatives carried his brother on a makeshift bed until they reached the nearest road. “We put him on a bed and took him on our shoulders and walked a long way to the road connecting to the city,” said Iqbal, 45, a construction labourer. Eventually, they persuaded a friend to drive them, while neighbours siphoned petrol from their motorcycles to gather enough fuel for the journey to Hajira. At the government hospital, the limited staff could do little more than stabilise the patient. Doctors told the family he needed to be transferred immediately to a larger hospital, preferably in Islamabad, about 140km (87 miles) away, a journey of nearly four hours. Another car had to be found, another favour requested and another search for petrol began before Iqbal was finally able to take his brother to a government hospital in Islamabad, where he received treatment and is now recovering. Iqbal’s ordeal unfolded amid protests, strikes, and mobile and internet shutdowns that have gripped Pakistan-administered Kashmir, formally known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and particularly its Poonch Division, for the past six weeks. The unrest began in June after authorities banned the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), a coalition demanding the abolition of 12 legislative assembly seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees, among other grievances. Weeks of strikes, sit-ins and clashes followed, resulting in dozens of deaths, both of protesters and law enforcement personnel, ahead of the phased legislative assembly election, which is scheduled to begin on July 27. But for many people in Poonch Division, which borders India, and neighbouring areas, the defining feature of the past month has been neither the election nor the protests. Instead, it has been the disruption to everyday life caused by roadblocks and the prolonged internet shutdown.