Muzaffarabad

Dozens of angry residents in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) are blocking the region over Islamabad's harsh policies that are reportedly hurting the economic interest of locals.

PoK's four million residents suffer from high unemployment rate, poor infrastructure, and lack of resources forcing people to migrate to large cities of Pakistan where they are only allowed menial jobs as labourers, cleaners at hotels, drivers, etc.

Since July 1, women and children have been sitting on roads for days in PoK, shouting slogans of freedom and demanding the army return to barracks. Many people are reported to have been arrested.

Locals of Gilgit-Baltistan have staged a sit-in blocking the Karakoram Highway in Nasirabad, Hunza, to protest against the minerals department for permitting mining leases to an outsider company.

ALSO READ: UNGA: India looks at alternatives as UNSC reforms deferred

Earlier at the 50th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, UKPNP (United Kashmir People's National Party) chairman and human rights activist Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri held a demonstration to condemn Pakistan's forcible occupation of Kashmir and serious human rights violations in PoK