Rights organizations and United Nations experts are scrutinizing regional authorities for using the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Anti-Terrorism Act to target government critics. Isabelle Lassee, Amnesty’s South Asia deputy regional director, warned that banning the grassroots alliance directly violates fundamental freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly. Prime Minister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gilani must now navigate these civic grievances alongside internal divisions within his ruling party.
Key points
Regional authorities are using anti-terrorism measures to suppress civil society groups p…: Regional authorities are using anti-terrorism measures to suppress civil society groups protesting cost-of-living increases.
The newly appointed administration under Prime Minister Gilani faces severe internal divi…: The newly appointed administration under Prime Minister Gilani faces severe internal divisions while confronting intense international scrutiny.
Rights monitors demand the immediate lifting of the association ban and the release of ar…: Rights monitors demand the immediate lifting of the association ban and the release of arbitrarily detained activists.
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Army personnel patrol outside a polling station during the first phase of voting for the local legislature in Mirpur, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, on 27 July 2026 (AFP/Qayyum)
Amnesty International has urged the newly formed government in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir to release hundreds of activists arbitrarily detained under anti-terrorism laws for protesting against the rising cost of living.
In a letter to the newly elected Prime Minister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gilani, the rights group demanded that Gilani’s new administration improve the human rights situation by repealing the ban on the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC).
“In [the] wake of swift and systematic steps taken by authorities since June in the region to repress civic freedoms, we call upon your government and all relevant authorities to ensure that the human rights of all those inside the region are upheld,” wrote Isabelle Lassee, deputy regional director at Amnesty’s South Asia Regional Office.
“The arbitrary banning of Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), a grassroots people’s movement, by proscribing it under the first schedule of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Anti-Terrorism Act, 2014 violates the right to…
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