People craving for blockades, food, medicine, fuel… Shehbaz-Munir’s brutality to suppress protests in PoK 2026
People craving for blockades, food, medicine, fuel… Shehbaz-Munir’s brutality to suppress protests in PoK 2026 The Pakistani government has completely blocked the supply of essential food items, fuel, and life-saving medicines in the entire mountainous region of PoK to forcibly suppress the public uprising and civil rebellion against them.
In Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Islamabad has taken an extremely inhumane route to crush the anti-government popular movement. To suppress the large protests happening in the region, the Pakistani rulers have completely blocked the entry of food, rations, diesel-petrol, and essential medicines into PoK. This blockade has created a severe shortage of food and supplies in sensitive areas like Muzaffarabad, Poonch, Rawalakot, Bag, and the distant Neelum Valley.
Local media, residents, truck drivers, and opposition leaders reported that vehicles carrying essential goods are being prevented from entering the area, which has made the shortages caused by the ongoing shutdown across the region led by the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) even worse. However, Pakistani officials have denied that any such blockade is in place, but reports from BBC Urdu, Dawn, and other international news agencies point to the deepening crisis in this illegally occupied area.
Trucks loaded with goods stopped at border checkpoints
Local media claimed that after a severe shortage of medicines and ration in POK, when local residents started going to neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad to buy supplies themselves, such people are being stopped at border checkpoints. Police personnel from Punjab stationed in Azad Pattan and Phagwari are not allowing commercial trucks and private vehicles loaded with rations and medicines to move forward, causing dozens of vehicles to be stuck for weeks and perishable items like vegetables to rot.
‘You’ll get entry only if you throw your belongings’
According to a BBC Urdu report, a local citizen named Naveed shared his experience, saying that near Azad Pattan, the police stopped his car. He pleaded a lot with the officers, saying that there was starvation at home and his wife was pregnant, so he should be allowed to take the food and medicine bought from Rawalpindi. But the policemen made it clear that he would only be allowed to go ahead if he threw the items with his own hands; otherwise, he would have to turn back.
Alif Deen, who lives in Neelam Valley, said that ever since the Joint Awami Action Committee’s strike and Pakistan’s blockade began, people haven’t been able to get rations from the government depot. Alif Deen has been depositing money at the government depot and making daily trips for the past 15 days, but he still hasn’t received any flour. The little flour that’s left in the open market is priced sky-high.
The medical store has been closed for two weeks
According to a report by news agency AFP, 64-year-old Mohammad Makeen from Muzaffarnagar said that he is looking for medicines everywhere for his treatment, but drugs are not available anywhere in the area. All the big medical stores and pharmacies in the region have been closed continuously for the past two weeks. Locks are hanging on petrol pumps in Poonch and Muzaffarnagar, forcing people to buy expensive fuel from the black market.
Meanwhile, although Pakistani officials and the police chief have flatly denied the blockade allegations, media reports have exposed Islamabad’s true intentions. The ‘Dawn’ newspaper confirmed, citing an anonymous official, that the government adopted a calculated strategy to cut off the food and supply lines reaching protesters in Rawalakot, without using force, to end the ongoing sit-in.
Why are the protests happening?
Actually, the root of this whole heavy controversy is the 12 seats reserved for Jammu and Kashmir refugees in the legislative assembly of POK. Local citizen groups allege that Islamabad manipulates these seats to influence elections there and set up puppet governments. Against this political interference, the local population has launched a big movement under the banner of JAAC, and the internet has even been shut down to suppress it. At least 58 people have died in clashes during the protests.
The big Pakistani political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s PoK unit has strongly condemned this action in a post on the social media platform X. The party alleged that passengers on the Azad Pattan route are being stopped and deprived of drinking water, food, and essential medicines. PTI called this government move ‘the most disgusting example of pharaonic oppression.’
70 thousand people associated with the movement
Despite this cruel economic blockade by the Pakistani government, the public’s movement is showing no signs of stopping. Over the past two weeks, more than 70,000 people have joined the massive protest at the Eidgah grounds in Rawalakot. JAAC leaders have warned that if their demands are not met, they will organize a huge march of 100,000 people from Rawalakot to the administrative capital Muzaffarnagar.
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