AJK govt issues travel advisory ahead of JAAC protest, asks visitors to leave
Why this matters: local context for readers following news across Pakistan and the region.
MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government on Friday urged outsiders to avoid travelling to the region and asked current visitors to leave immediately, ahead of a major protest that has prompted the deployment of federal paramilitary troops. The strict travel advisory, effective from June 5 to June 20, comes in response to a strike call for June 9 by the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), a civil society alliance spearheading a volatile rights movement in the territory. “The measure is advised to save intending visitors from any unexpected situation or inconvenience,” an unnamed official spokesperson said in a press release issued by the region’s Press Information Department (PID). “The government also requests those already in the territory for sightseeing or any other purpose to leave by Friday evening so that they do not confront any unpleasant situation,” the spokesperson added. Zahid Aslam, who owns a guest house in Neelum Valley, told Dawn that the administration had urged him to ask his guests to leave. His guest house was booked till June 16, but guests are now requesting refunds. The JAAC has previously led mass demonstrations over local economic grievances and political rights that turned deadly during clashes with law enforcement in May 2024 and September 2025. The alliance’s latest protest wave centres on a highly contentious demand to abolish the 12 seats in the region’s Legislative Assembly that are reserved for refugees from Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir who settled in mainland Pakistan after 1947. JAAC alleges that these seats are frequently used by mainstream Pakistani political parties to influence the formation of governments in Muzaffarabad. On Thursday, the AJK Legislative Assembly strongly defended the status quo, backing the refugee seats and calling for elections to proceed on schedule. Anxious to prevent a repeat of past bloodshed, Islamabad has dispatched federal paramilitary forces to reinforce the region’s thinly stre