Military Tensions Across the Line of Control: Implications for Local Population in Pakistan-administered Kashmir

Abstract

’Kashmir’’ has been an issue between Pakistan and India and there has been a struggle over Kashmir between the two nuclear-armed states since they got portioned. There is enough literature available on the Kashmir issue, but the Pakistan-administered Kashmir has been neglected, especially the local population across the Line of control. It is the local population that bears the brunt of across-the-border tensions. Across the border tensions have become a norm, the local population has to suffer a lot. The mainstream media on both sides of the Line of Control looks at this conflict with a popular discourse that prevails. For International states, for example, the United States, India, and Pakistan is a flashpoint, both are nuclear-armed, any severe escalation can give rise to a larger conflict that would be dangerous for this whole region. In all this debate the Local Kashmiris on LoC are excluded. Mainstream media reduces the miseries of the local population in numbers but the scar on them is long-lasting. This paper intends to analyze and focus on implications of across-the-border (LoC) tensions on the local population in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. What socioeconomic cost, the population very close to the border bear? How much have they been suffering and suffering in general during the heightened tensions across the border? How has the State responded to this situation? What the latest truce agreement on LoC means for the locals in AJK? To analyze the problem this study aims to do qualitative research, focused on a local population especially the villages very close to the line of control (LoC). Keywords: Tensions along the Line of Control, Azad Jammu and Kashmir/ Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Local Population across the LoC, implications of Cross LoC firing on local people in AJK, Front-line dynamics, Autonomous Military Factors, Inadvertent Crossing, Jihadist infiltration, Militancy, and tangled politics.