Pakistan Bans Foreign Media in PoK

New Delhi: Having failed to contain the rebellion in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) despite police brutality, the Pakistan government has now banned coverage of the protests by local and international media. Pakistan has restricted digital access to foreign news platforms in the country and tightened travel and reporting guidelines for international journalists.

The move came after critical coverage by the international media of the ongoing unrest in PoK. While the Pakistani media maintained silence on the unrest and carried only government press releases, international media outlets such as Al Jazeera and the BBC reported from the ground, exposing police brutality amid the ongoing Assembly elections.

On Monday, Pakistan blocked the Al Jazeera website in the country. Pakistan’s ministry of information and broadcasting issued a special advisory for international media, stating that foreign media personnel could visit places outside Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad for reporting purposes only after obtaining an NOC from the government. Reports claimed that the crackdown on international media and their digital news platforms came after Al Jazeera exposed the sham elections in PoK and the BBC reported on police brutality.

Locals claimed that the elections in PoK were rigged. “What I saw in AJK (PoK) polls while reporting… most people I spoke to in Muzaffarabad boycotted polls after 50-plus deaths in AJK reportedly since the June protests erupted. We witnessed violent clashes in Lower and Central Plate. People were too scared to speak on record,” Ramna Saeed, a journalist with Independent Urdu, posted on X.

“Casualties continue to be reported from Rawalakot and other parts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Protests erupted in Islamabad where people demanded an end to violence, the release of detainees and protection of constitutional rights,” Saeed wrote on Friday.

The BBC, which had managed to gain access to Rawalakot and speak to those at the heart of the protests, carried reports about security forces firing on innocent civilians and hospitals and clinics struggling to provide medical aid.

On Monday evening, a fresh round of police brutality was reported when unarmed protesters gathered at Lal Chowk in Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK, and came under intense firing by Pakistani Rangers and the Frontier Corps (FC). At least one death was confirmed, even as visuals from the ground indicated that the demonstrators were protesting without weapons.

“Despite the current grave situation in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, where security forces opened fire on unarmed and peaceful civilians, the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) has put forward the following proposals aimed at promoting peace, stability, and meaningful dialogue,” JAAC said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the PML-N was leading the race in the second phase of the Assembly polls in PoK, which the JAAC termed a “farce” and “fraudulent”.