Pakistan’s Kashmir Region Enters Second Month Of Internet Blackout: Pakistan’s Kashmir Region Enters Second Month Of Internet Blackout: Six Weeks Of Mobile And Broadband Shutdown In AJK’s Poonch Division Leaves Students Without Exams, Traders Without Income And Patients Without Emergency Access
According to Al Jazeera, mobile data and broadband services across Pakistan-administered Kashmir have been suspended since June 5, 2026, entering their seventh week as legislative assembly elections approach, scheduled to begin July 27.
The shutdown followed authorities banning the Joint Awami Action Committee, a civil society coalition demanding the abolition of 12 legislative assembly seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees. Weeks of strikes, sit-ins and clashes followed, killing dozens of protesters and law enforcement personnel.
In Poonch Division, residents describe compounding crises. A construction labourer had to organise fuel from four different sources to get his brother, who collapsed with chest pain, to a hospital in Islamabad, 140km away. A Muzaffarabad printing business owner estimates the shutdown has cost between Rs15 million and Rs20 million during what should have been the busiest election season. Medical college entrance exams for an entire student cohort were postponed mid-examination with no reschedule date announced.
Subsidised wheat allocations were never fulfilled due to road closures. Traders now pay Rs6,000 per maund for flour instead of the subsidised Rs2,200.
A government in one room. A collapsed region in another.
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