Pakistan’s long-standing narrative on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) has come under unprecedented internal challenge after a massive rally at Eidgah Ground in Rawalakot, where local movement leader Sardar Aman Khan publicly rejected Islamabad’s terminology of “Azad Kashmir” and even the notion of the area being a “disputed” territory, NDTV reported.

Speaking before an estimated 80,000-strong gathering, Khan declared that the region was neither “Azad” (free) nor “disputed” but an “occupied territory”, explicitly framing PoK as an area under Pakistani occupation rather than one awaiting final status under a bilateral or international process.

Addressing the crowd, he directly challenged Pakistan’s decades-old propaganda that has projected the region as “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” and claimed to represent the will of the local people.

In a pointed assertion, he told the rally, “This is not a disputed territory, this is an occupied territory, it has been occupied,” triggering loud applause and slogans from the assembled demonstrators who have been mobilised under the banner of the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC).

The Rawalakot rally, held at the Eidgah Ground, is described as one of the largest public gatherings in the recent history of PoK protests, signalling the scale of anger against Pakistan’s political, economic and administrative policies in the region.

Khan’s articulation directly undercuts Pakistan’s long-standing policy of calling the area “Azad Kashmir” and treating it as a symbol of its claimed support for Kashmiri self-determination, by instead casting Islamabad as an occupying power dependent on the territory’s resources and geography.

He went further to assert that PoK was not part of Pakistan and that, in real terms, Pakistan needed PoK more than the people of PoK needed Pakistan, reversing the conventional narrative that the region is dependent on Islamabad.

The latest rally fits into a wider wave of unrest, with protests in Rawalakot and other parts of PoK continuing for over 40 days, initially driven by grievances over soaring electricity tariffs, taxation and living costs but now transformed into a broader movement against systemic exploitation and denial of rights.

Residents accuse Pakistani authorities and the local administration of worsening socio-economic conditions through chronic neglect, corruption, discriminatory resource allocation and a governance structure that leaves decision-making in the hands of the Pakistani military and bureaucracy.

Khan alleged that Pakistan had effectively blocked the supply of food and medicines for the past several weeks, imposing what activists describe as an economic blockade that has created a mounting humanitarian crisis across parts of PoK.

He claimed that for nearly three weeks essential supplies had been choked, with security forces and officials using access to food and medical items as a tool of coercion to break the back of the protest movement.

Against this backdrop, Khan appealed for support not only from people across the Line of Control (LoC) in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir but also from India itself, framing the situation in humanitarian rather than purely political terms.

In public statements and video appeals, he urged India to consider opening the LoC on humanitarian grounds and to facilitate food and medicine supplies if Pakistan continued to block essentials, adding that the people of PoK “need India’s help” under the current conditions.

He also called on residents of Srinagar, Ladakh, Poonch, Rajouri and Jammu to show solidarity with PoK’s population during planned demonstrations, attempting to build a cross-LoC and pan-Jammu and Kashmir constituency against Pakistan’s handling of the region.

During the Rawalakot rally, Khan asked the crowd whether they should march towards the Line of Control in defiance of Pakistani restrictions and military deployments along the frontier.

The protesters responded with repeated and enthusiastic chants of “Move towards it,” indicating a willingness among sections of the crowd to escalate the agitation towards the LoC and symbolically or physically challenge Pakistan’s control.

Khan warned that if the blockade of food, medicines and other necessities persisted, people could be compelled to look to India and possibly even to cross the LoC to escape what they describe as inhuman conditions under Pakistani rule.

He contended that Pakistan’s state machinery – including the military, paramilitary and police forces – was treating unarmed civilians as enemies, while allowing armed jihadi groups and sectarian outfits to operate in the territory in the past under state patronage.

In a separate recent address, Khan had alleged that it was Pakistan’s military that originally supplied weapons and ammunition to Kashmiris, pushing guns across the LoC into Jammu and Kashmir, and was now branding the very same people as “terrorists”.

By contrast, he said, peaceful protesters demanding rights, affordable utilities and an end to exploitation were being declared terrorists and subjected to a harsh crackdown, exposing what he portrayed as Pakistan’s double standards on militancy and civil dissent.

As the movement has expanded, some JAAC leaders have articulated a 38-point charter of demands, warning that if these demands are not accepted and implemented, the agitation could shift beyond economic issues to a full-fledged movement demanding Pakistan’s complete withdrawal from PoK.

The protests, which began with strikes and shutdowns over electricity pricing, taxation levels and wheat flour costs, have thus evolved into a civilian uprising against decades of political disenfranchisement, demographic anxieties and the dominance of the Pakistani military establishment in PoK affairs. Tensions significantly escalated when the unrest turned deadly, with security forces responding with force at several protest sites.

These developments coincide with Pakistan’s broader political and economic turmoil, including high inflation, fiscal stress and civil–military tensions, raising concerns in Islamabad that unrest in PoK could intersect with opposition movements in Pakistan’s heartland.

For India, the situation provides both an opportunity and a challenge: an opportunity to highlight Pakistan’s treatment of people in PoK and to reinforce its legal claim over the territory, but also a challenge in calibrating humanitarian signalling and diplomatic messaging without allowing Pakistan to reframe the unrest as externally instigated.

Regional observers note that any significant loosening of Pakistan’s grip over PoK, whether through sustained protest, international pressure or internal political churn, would have major implications for the Kashmir dispute, regional connectivity routes and the security calculus of both India and Pakistan.

Within the protest movement, leaders like Sardar Aman Khan maintain that their immediate priority is securing basic entitlements, ending economic strangulation and asserting local ownership over land and resources, but their rhetoric on occupation and the possibility of seeking closer ties with India indicates that political reimagining of the region’s future is already underway.

Agencies