Violent protests have engulfed Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) against the reservation of 12 Assembly seats for refugees from Jammu and Kashmir living in different parts of Pakistan, leaving around a dozen people dead and several injured in clashes between agitators and Pakistani forces.

The violence erupted on Sunday after the Supreme Court of Pakistan-administered Kashmir ruled that 12 Assembly seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees living in Pakistan were constitutionally protected and could not be abolished without
an amendment.

Most of the killings have taken place in Rawalakot, which was part of Poonch district before Partition.

The landmark ruling came ahead of a rally planned on Tuesday by the outlawed Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee for greater rights, including the abolition of refugee seats. It contends that the reservations enabled people living outside the region to wield a disproportionate influence over PoK.

The committee has led multiple protests over the last three years, but Sunday’s violence is believed to be the most intense. The deceased included members of law-enforcing agencies, reports said.

Twenty-four seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly are reserved for PoK, but they remain vacant as Pakistan retains control over the region.

Unlike Jammu and Kashmir, the seats in the PoK Assembly are reserved for refugees — six each from the Jammu and Kashmir regions, who number around 4.6 lakh. While most of them are from the Jammu region, Kashmir has parity in seats despite a much smaller electorate, giving PoK protesters additional ammo to target the reservation system.

There was no reservation for refugees in Jammu and Kashmir before 2019. The Centre announced five nominated seats in the Assembly, including two for Kashmiri migrants, one for displaced people from PoK and two for women, after scrapping Article 370.

Poonch legislator Choudhary Mohammad Akram said a large number of Jammu Muslims migrated to Pakistan following hostile conditions in the region in 1947, and they included his relatives. “They suffered enormously, but they chose to live in different parts of Pakistan after migration. We have no communication with relatives on the other side. I think it is wrong to abolish reservations for them,” he said.

Choudhary said there was no anger against refugees who chose to live in PoK. “My cousin Showkat Hussain Shah, whose father had also migrated from Rajouri, became a minister twice there,” he said.

Uri MLA and National Conference leader Dr Sajjad Shafi, who also has relatives in PoK, however, said many refugees from Jammu and Kashmir were living in different parts of Pakistan, and their representatives helped topple governments there. “They live in Karachi, Lahore and Pakhtunkhwa. They have become citizens of Pakistan. The PoK residents say they are taking all the benefits from Pakistan, but they become MLAs in PoK and help topple the governments,” he told The Telegraph.

Jammu and Kashmir has also witnessed multiple but unrelated anti-reservation protests in the last few years.

Poonch and Rajouri districts saw protests ahead of the 2024 Assembly elections by Paharis — majority Muslims but also comprising Hindus — seeking reservation under the Scheduled Tribe status.

The majority of the residents of PoK are also Paharis, almost all of them Muslims, but they broadly call themselves Kashmiris.

The Centre granted ST status to Jammu and Kashmir Paharis, a first for a linguistic group in the country, to win their support in the elections.

Most Kashmiris have since been protesting against the reservations that they claim have brought down the open merit quota for 70 per cent of the Union Territory’s population to a mere 30-40 per cent.