Geneva, Dec 17 (IANS) The United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) strongly condemned the hours-long load shedding, dangerously low electricity voltage, and the continued collapse of internet and mobile services across Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
The party expressed solidarity with the people amid a shutter-down strike in the Rawalakot region of Poonch district in PoK.
In a post on X, the UKPNP's spokesperson, Sardar Nasir Aziz Khan, said, “The region has been suffering from extreme load shedding, low voltage electricity, and poor internet and mobile connectivity for several months. Daily life has become unbearable for ordinary people.”
“UKPNP expresses serious concern and strongly condemns the policies of local authorities and Islamabad, where lent officers exercise absolute powers without accountability,” he added.
According to the party, people across PoK have remained on the streets for more than two and a half years staging “peaceful” protests for their basic rights under the banner of the Joint Awami Action Committee.
“Instead of respecting democratic demands, brutal force was used against peaceful protesters in an attempt to crush the movement. Three people were killed in May 2024 in Muzaffarabad, followed by the killing of twelve people in October 2025. Alongside this violence, propaganda, fabricated stories, and false information were deliberately spread to defame and discredit the people’s rights movement,” the UKPNP stated.
Despite the use of force and these tactics, it said, Islamabad and Muzaffarabad were eventually compelled to agree to several demands of the Joint Awami Action Committee.
The party alleged that the local authorities are punishing the people collectively. It highlighted that many areas of PoK face several hours of daily load shedding, while the Poonch region experiences 15 to 20 hours of power cuts, along with dangerously low voltage electricity, deliberately slowed internet speeds, and failing mobile networks.
“Millions of Kashmiris living abroad struggle for hours to communicate with their families. Due to prolonged power cuts, slow internet, and poor mobile services, many are unable to contact their loved ones at all," the party mentioned.
The UKPNP demanded that all promises made by the Government of Pakistan and the local authorities must be honoured, and that the agreements signed under public pressure must be fully implemented without delay.
The party urged the United Nations, the European Parliament, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the wider international community to take serious note of these restrictions and punitive actions in the PoK, warning that continued silence will only embolden Pakistani authorities' repression and deepen the humanitarian and political crisis faced by the people in PoK and Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan.
--IANS
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