‘Collapsed’: Roadblocks, internet blackout leave Pakistani Kashmir in limbo
Al Jazeera · LC · trust 46/100
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x whatsapp-stroke copylink google Add Al Jazeera on Google info People check their phones, as internet services remain disrupted in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-administered Kashmir, on July 5, 2026 [Amiruddin Mughal/EPA] By Abid Hussain Published On 24 Jul 2026 24 Jul 2026 Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-administered Kashmir — Zaheer Iqbal remembers exactly how much fuel it took to save his brother’s life. First, 2.5 litres to drive from his hilltop village of Keri Kot to the government hospital in Hajira, more than 10km (6 miles) away, a journey that took an hour.
Then another five litres, brought by a cousin who drove more than 60km (37 miles) from Kotli city in a two-hour trip, so there was enough petrol to continue to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.
It was the middle of the night in mid-June when Iqbal’s elder brother collapsed with chest pain in their village in Poonch Division, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
With no ambulance service reaching Keri Kot, where most people travel on motorcycle or on foot, Iqbal, his two sons and other relatives carried his brother on a makeshift bed until they reached the nearest road.
“We put him on a bed and took him on our shoulders and walked a long way to the road connecting to the city,” said Iqbal, 45, a construction labourer.
Eventually, they persuaded a friend to drive them, while neighbours siphoned petrol from their motorcycles to gather enough fuel for the journey to Hajira.
At the government hospital, the limited staff could do little more than stabilise the patient. Doctors told the family he needed to be transferred immediately to a larger hospital, preferably in Islamabad, about 140km (87 miles) away, a journey of nearly four hours.
Another car had to be found, another favour requested and another search for petrol began before Iqbal was finally able to take his brother to a government hospital in Islamabad, where he received treatment and is now recovering.
Iqbal’s ordeal unfolded amid protests, strikes, and mobile and internet shutdowns that have gripped Pakistan-administered Kashmir, formally known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and particularly its Poonch Division, for the past six weeks.
The unrest began in June after authorities banned the Joint Awami Action Committee ( JAAC ), a coalition demanding the abolition of 12 legislative assembly seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees, among other grievances.
Weeks of strikes, sit-ins and clashes followed, resulting in dozens of deaths , both of protesters and law enforcement personnel, ahead of the phased legislative assembly election , which is scheduled to begin on July 27.
But for many people in Poonch Division, which borders India , and neighbouring areas, the defining feature of the past month has been neither the election nor the protests.
Instead, it has been the disruption to everyday life caused by roadblocks and the prolonged internet shutdown.
Mobile data and broadband services across AJK have been suspended since June 5.
In Hajira, Iqbal said the shutdown has had less impact than it has in larger towns and cities because there is little business activity in his village.
“This is one thing which impacts less than cities,” he said. “But for those who rely on it, especially students and businesses, this has impacted people a lot more.”
His own livelihood depends less on internet access than on relatives working abroad or in Islamabad, who send money whenever they can.
“That is what has kept us going, since there has been little to no work since the protests started,” he said.
In neighbouring Sudhnoti district, trader Malik Niaz Ahmed, president of the local traders’ association, said the shutdown had hit students the hardest, alongside shortages of government-subsidised wheat caused by road closures disrupting supplies.
“The June allocation [of wheat] was never fulfilled,” he said, due to the road closures.
Traders have instead been forced to buy flour at market rates of about 6,000 Pakistani rupees ($21.60) per maund, a traditional measure in South Asia which amounts to about 37kg, compared with the subsidised rate of 2,200 rupees ($8) promised to residents.
Ahmed said his union council serves a combined rural and urban population of about 100,000 people.
About 8km (5 miles) north, in Poonch’s Pallandari area, Masood Khan, principal of the local postgraduate college, described similar hardships, compounded by a crisis affecting his students.
“The internet closure remains the single biggest obstacle to doing anything,” he said. “Even the regular mobile network keeps failing. Calls end abruptly, or the voice quality is so poor you can barely follow.”
Khan has taught for three decades and has led the college for the past six months. During his interview with Al Jazeera, the phone call dropped four times.
Since the protests began, he said, public transport has become prohibitively expensive, while groceries have become harder to obtain.
“Pulses, bread, eggs, vegetables, all of it is available, but in short supply,” he said. “We often have to queue or pay extra.”
Khan’s students were midway through their entrance examinations for medical colleges across Pakistan when authorities postponed the remaining three papers because of the disruption.
More than six weeks later, they are still waiting.
“No exam means no result, which means no admission,” he said. “For…
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