Deadly Overnight Clashes Rock PaJK Ahead of Planned Long March

The brief

Deadly overnight clashes in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch Division have left at least five people dead and many injured, amid sharply conflicting accounts from security forces and supporters of the banned Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC). The violence, centred on Baloch and Rawalakot, comes on the eve of JAAC’s planned long march to Muzaffarabad and just weeks before crucial legislative elections, deepening a crisis already marked by curfews, communications blackouts and disputed casualty figures.