At least one person was killed and several others injured during violent clashes on Monday (July 27, 2026) on the polling day of the first phase of elections for the so-called legislative assembly in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
India has maintained that Pakistan has been in illegal possession of the Indian Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
“Our party worker, Mukhtar Yunus, was killed and two others injured during incidents of firing by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates,” the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) said in a statement.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari expressed his grief over the death. “Where are the relevant authorities? What is the Election Commission doing?” he asked.
The elections, originally scheduled for July 27, are being held in three phases from July 27 to August 10. There are 53 seats in the so-called Assembly of PoK – 45 are directly elected, while eight seats are reserved for women, technocrats and clerics.
Both the PPP and PML-N accused each other of rigging in multiple constituencies.
The electoral process was also briefly interrupted at some polling stations following scuffles and heated exchanges between supporters of rival political parties.
While Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has boycotted the polls, the Joint Awami Action Committee has been banned.
According to Khan’s party, over 100 people were killed during violent clashes in PoK following last month’s JAAC protests that paralysed life in the region for some 50 days.
The JAAC’s main demand was the abolition of the 12 refugee seats. The government, however, refused to accept its demand. Dozens of people, including security men, were killed in the violence, following which the government last month banned the JAAC.
India described the protests in PoK as a “direct consequence” of Islamabad’s decades-long “systemic exploitation and administrative oppression” in areas under its “forcible” occupation and criticised reported police brutality on the protesters.
Published – July 28, 2026 07:48 am IST
