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AJK Citizens: Banned Action Committee Narrative FailedAzad Kashmir
Neelum Valley residents say the banned committee has lost public backing, with even its own members walking away, Kashmir Urdu reports.
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Residents of Neelum Valley in Azad Jammu and Kashmir say the banned Joint Awami Action Committee’s anti-state narrative has failed, according to a report published by Kashmir Urdu on Friday. The residents quoted in the report said the committee no longer commands public support and is now looking for ways to bring its sit-in protest to an end.
The citizens said even people close to the committee have grown tired of its approach and have begun to distance themselves from it. They said members of the group have been writing letters to politicians, journalists and prominent figures in the state in search of attention, but now stand alone. The report also said Munawar Zarif, described as a close associate of committee leader Sardar Aman, has announced that he is cutting ties with the group.
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The Joint Awami Action Committee, known as JAAC, was founded in Rawalakot in September 2023 as a civil society coalition of traders, lawyers, students and civic groups. It first campaigned on everyday issues such as subsidised flour and cheaper electricity, and later took up the demand to abolish 12 seats in the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly reserved for Kashmiri refugees living in Pakistan. The Azad Kashmir government declared the committee a proscribed organisation on 5 June 2026 under the Anti-Terrorism Act, saying it had moved from its original demands towards anti-state activities. The committee rejects the allegations and describes its movement as peaceful.
The Kashmir Urdu report also carried serious claims from the citizens it quoted, who alleged that supporters of the committee had opened fire on people in an attempt to draw attention to themselves. Those claims have not been independently verified. The residents quoted in the report said the public had already abandoned the group, and that its message had failed before and would fail again. State broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported in June that people across Azad Kashmir, including in Neelum, had refused to take part in the outlawed committee’s protest calls, and an English-language Kashmir outlet reported in September that markets, hotels and tourist spots in Neelum Valley stayed open as residents rejected the protest narrative.
The report did not carry a response from the committee. The committee’s position, as reported elsewhere, is that its struggle is peaceful and that it denies the allegations made against it.
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