Shutdown, Road Blockades, Mass Sit-Ins: How PoK Protests Have Paralysed Region | Exclusive

Published 20 June 2026 · india

Shutdown, Road Blockades, Mass Sit-Ins: How PoK Protests Have Paralysed Region | Exclusive Reported By, Last Updated: June 20, 2026, 17:35 IST Despite Pakistani authorities

Shutdown, Road Blockades, Mass Sit-Ins: How PoK Protests Have Paralysed Region | Exclusive Reported By, Last Updated: June 20, 2026, 17:35 IST Despite Pakistani authorities launching four consecutive crackdowns to dissolve the agitations, News18 has learnt that the efforts have completely failed Thousands of people from various parts of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) gathered in Rawalakot and raised slogans. (File pic/ANI) A total shutter-down strike and chakka jam (road blockade) protest have brought life to a standstill across Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) as hundreds of thousands of people gather at massive sit-in sites. Despite local authorities launching four consecutive crackdowns to dissolve the agitations, CNN-News18 has learnt that the efforts have completely failed. Demonstrators have bypassed administrative restrictions by setting up permanent camps in open fields, backed by their own continuous supply networks. Tensions escalated further as the core committee of the Awami Action Committee began emergency consultative meetings with local citizens in Rawalakot to strategise the next phase of the civil disobedience movement.

The humanitarian situation on the ground has deteriorated sharply, with regional leaders stating that the administration has effectively turned the region into a conflict zone analogous to Karbala. Local activists reveal that food supplies face severe restrictions and life-saving medicines are being held under armed guard. The physical blockade of essential rations and medical supplies at critical entry routes, including the Dhan Gali checkpoint, has triggered intense outrage, with organisers characterising the deprivation of children and the sick as a brutal, state-sanctioned escalation intended to choke out the popular movement. The administrative strategy to crush the movement through domestic raids has met with fierce resistance and direct warnings from protest leaders. Addressing a massive gathering, Sardar Aman warned that if state authorities and their loyalists continue to conduct unauthorised house raids, the public will retaliate. Aman declared that if any Assistant Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, or Station House Officer forcibly enters a citizen’s private home, the public will respond by breaching the residences of those official figures.

Amid the growing gridlock, movement leaders have urged demonstrators to maintain absolute discipline to defeat the state’s aggressive countermeasures. Sardar Umar Nazir Kashmiri stated that history has reached a critical turning point and urged every individual seeking an end to oppression, tyranny, and fascism to join the active sit-ins. Emphasising the necessity of a non-violent struggle, Kashmiri appealed to the public to remain entirely peaceful and systematically foil the provocative tactics being deployed by the ruling establishment. The momentum of the PoK protests has also triggered widespread international coordination among the diaspora. Highlighting that this is a collective fight for the implementation of legitimate and formally accepted economic and political demands, Umar Nazir credited overseas Kashmiris for playing a vital role in sustaining the movement’s visibility. Leaders have issued an urgent appeal to the diaspora to intensify the struggle globally by strengthening sit-ins and demonstrations outside Pakistani embassies, United Nations offices, and international human rights organisations to expose the severe crackdown in the region.