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As the region marked the fourth day of a complete shutdown on Thursday, with at least 15 people dead, including three police officers, in violent clashes between protesters and security forces, an unsettling calm hangs over Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Dozens more have been injured on both sides as the standoff continues.

The federal government has dispatched a negotiating committee that arrived on Thursday in Muzaffarabad, the territory’s capital, to hold crucial talks with the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), an umbrella organisation representing traders and civil society groups that has emerged as the voice of grassroots discontent across the region.

The JAAC-organized lockdown, which was led by activist Shaukat Nawaz Mir, slowed the progress of several districts of Pakistan-administered Kashmir’s (AJK) region.

Residents have been disconnected from mobile telecommunications and internet access since September 28 due to the government’s meanwhile imposed a complete&nbsp communications blackout.

In Muzaffarabad, the usually bustling markets have remained shuttered, while street vendors and public transport have vanished from the roads. The region’s roughly four million residents are uncertain because of the paralysis.

Authorities said in a statement that they were working to restore order, and that they were urging the public to refrain from being influenced by what officials described as “fake news” and propaganda being made available on social media as part of a “special agenda”

This JAAC-led protest – the third such major mobilisation in the past two years – erupted after the government failed to agree to the committee’s 38-point demands, according to the group’s leaders.

The local government of Pakistan-administered Kashmir and a grassroots movement that has repeatedly demonstrated its street power have engaged in an ongoing conflict for two years.

What caused the protests to begin?

The Kashmir valley is the picturesque yet deeply contentious Himalayan region over which Pakistan and India have fought multiple wars since both nations gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Both have control over the region, and China also has two slivers of the north. India claims all of Kashmir, with the exception of parts held by China, its allies, while Pakistan claims all of Kashmir.

With a population exceeding four million, according to the 2017 census, Pakistan-administered Kashmir operates under a semi-autonomous system with its own prime minister and legislative assembly.

The current unrest began in May 2023 when people first took to the streets to protest what they perceived as rising electricity bills. In addition, complaints about widespread flour smuggling and acute shortages of subordinated wheat supplies also surfaced.

By August 2023, these disparate grievances had coalesced into organised resistance. In Muzaffarabad, hundreds of activists gathered in September that year to formally form the JAAC, bringing together representatives from all regional districts.

In May 2024, protesters marched long distance towards Muzaffarabad, which was the movement’s first significant turning point. Violent clashes ensued, resulting in the deaths of at least five people, including a police officer.

The government awarded billions of rupees in subsidies to help lower electricity prices and lower flour prices, but only after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif agreed to significant demands.

However, the peace was temporary. In August of this year, the JAAC announced it would launch another lockdown, this time broadening its critique beyond economic grievances.

What are the demands of protesters, and why are they unhappy?

The latest charter of demands presented by the JAAC consists of 38 distinct points. The demands range from changing the provincial legislature’s structure to launching major infrastructure projects, providing free education and healthcare, and introducing major infrastructure projects.

However, the abolition of what the JAAC refers to as “ruling elite privileges,” a demand that has also been prominent in other grievances, is at the top of the list.

The JAAC maintains that following the May 2024 protests, the government acknowledged that a judicial commission would be formed to review “privileges granted to high government officials”.

Two government-provided vehicles, personal staff, including bodyguards, as well as unlimited fuel for vehicles they use for government work are some of the benefits offered to senior government officials, such as ministers.

The elimination of the system of 12 reserved seats for refugees in the autonomous region’s legislative assembly is a second important demand that was first included on the JAAC’s list.

According to the JAAC, refugees and their descendants, who migrated from Indian-administered Kashmir after the 1947 partition, now constitute a powerful political bloc that has monopolised development funds.

Additionally, the charter calls for the end of all legal action brought against activists during the 2023 and 2024 protests.

Additionally, among other things, there are demands for tax exemptions and better employment opportunities.

Infrastructure development features prominently in the JAAC’s vision. Apart from an international airport, the committee has demanded new projects, including tunnels and bridges connecting the mountainous region to the rest of Pakistan.

An airport in Muzaffarabad has been operating for years and is still operational. However, in April of this year, Prime Minister Sharif formed a committee to work on reviving the project. Additionally, he gave orders to look into the viability of adding a second airport to Mirpur, the second-largest city in the area.

What is the government’s response?

The local administration has implemented a communications blackout and has ordered educational institutions shut indefinitely.

More contentious, it has demanded additional police forces from Pakistan’s rest of the country as well as paramilitary forces.

The deployment of paramilitary forces has been opposed by the JAAC. Mir, the JAAC leader, told reporters earlier this week that with local police already present, “there was no need to order paramilitary from mainland Pakistan”.

While there had already been a first round of negotiations, a new committee had just arrived in Muzaffarabad tasked with addressing the protesters’ grievances, according to Abdul Majid Khan, the finance minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

We agreed on those when they started their protest last year, which was initially all about electricity and the cost of flour. But they also must understand that things cannot happen overnight, and they take time”, Khan said, defending the government.

Khan acknowledged, however, that negotiations have broken down due to the government’s agreement to most of the JAAC’s 38 points, including the elimination of the 12 reserved seats for refugees and the elimination of “ruling elite perks.”

The minister challenged the logic behind eliminating seats reserved for refugees, pointing to what they lost at the time of the subcontinent’s partition.

These people, who had left their wealth behind and immigrated from India to Pakistan, are now living in excruciating poverty, but JAAC believes it unfair to grant them a seat quota. Why did these people even go to the trouble of moving here if we don’t grant them the rights? Khan argued.

The minister is one of the estimated 2.7 million people in the area who immigrated from Kashmir that is administered by India.

Given that the JAAC’s earlier demands had been met, Khan also questioned the justification for new protests. He said that for many of the current issues, local authorities must seek funding from the federal government in Islamabad.

With already lower electricity tariffs, the population here barely pays any taxes. Additionally, he noted that the region has less than 5, 000 tax filers, which indicates that the government isn’t making much money.

What happens next?

The next round of negotiations is scheduled for Friday, with the government representatives and JAAC members holding talks after they were resolved on Thursday.

Both parties publicly declare their intention to engage in dialogue, but distrust is persisted on by repeated shuffles of promises and disappointments.

Despite the JAAC’s persistent protests, the government maintains it has met most demands and that constitutional and electoral reforms require legislative processes that cannot happen overnight.

Khan stated that the government would act quickly to restore internet and mobile services, which he said “had been curtailed due to the situation on the ground,” once significant progress was made in the negotiations.

One yacht continues to sail toward the Palestinian enclave despite the Israeli military’s extensive destruction of a humanitarian flotilla trying to break its siege on Gaza.

The last vessel left in service of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was once a 44-strong fleet, was the Polish-flagged Marinette, which is reportedly home to a crew of six.

The Australian captain, who only identified himself as Cameron, explained that the boat had engine problems at the start of the video call with the flotilla organizers late on Thursday and was thus lagging behind the main group. Cameron continued, adding that the ship is currently “steaming” toward Gaza.

He said, “We have a bunch of very tough Turks on board; we have a woman from Oman and myself on board,” and we will just keep going in that direction.

The yacht’s crew is steered by the sun as it rises behind them in Mediterranean Sea international waters, as captured in a live video feed from the yacht’s 04:00 GMT live stream.

The ship is 43 nautical miles (approximately 80 kilometers) from Gaza’s territorial waters, according to a live geo tracker.

The Marinette was previously informed by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that “its attempt to enter and breach the blockade will also be avoided.”

42 boats were intercepted without permission.

Their passengers were unlawfully taken.

The world witnessed what occurs when a siege is challenged by civilians.

Marinette continues to sail.

She is aware of the fate of her water sisters.

She is aware of what lies ahead. And sh… https://t.co/XAtq1RHLyK

About 500 activists from more than 40 nations have been detained and dozens of boats carrying humanitarian supplies to Gaza have been stopped by Israel’s naval forces since Wednesday.

Israel had previously accused the volunteers of trying to “breach a lawful naval blockade,” which violated international law, and promised to take whatever steps to stop them.

Before transferring each boat to Israel, where the crew will be deported, the Israeli navy intercepted each and held them captive. Among those detained are prominent figures like activist Greta Thunberg, former mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau, and Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan.

The flotilla has attracted international attention as the navy’s largest naval aid mission to date in an effort to deliver supplies to the Palestinian enclave, and protests have erupted all over the world following its seizure.

International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), which represents more than 16.5 million transport workers worldwide, stated in an interview that “attacking or seizing nonviolent, humanitarian vessels in international waters” is against international law.

“States are unable to pick and choose when to uphold international law.” He argued that the seas must not be used as a staging area for war.

In response to Israel’s actions, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that his country would expelling Israeli diplomats and cancelling Colombia’s free trade agreement.

Germany, France, Spain, Greece, and Ireland are just a few examples of European countries calling on Israel to respect the rights of the crew members it has seized.

Israel’s actions are not yet being commented upon by the UN, but Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for Palestine, has called the interceptions “illegal abductions.”

Imam Hussain, a truck driver in Assam, has found solace in Zubeen Garg’s voice and music as he has spent more than 15 years driving his car along the Himalayan hills and plains of the northeastern Indian state of Assam.

It was a period in which Bengali-speaking Muslims – the community 42-year-old Hussein belongs to – increasingly came under attack in Assam. They are accused of being insiders or even as infiltrators in their own home.

Amid soaring Hindu-Muslim tensions, the music of Garg – a Hindu – served as a rare unifier. Hussain remarked, “His music was my inner peace.”

Garg drowned near Lazarus Island in Singapore on September 19 for the Northeast India Festival, an event that honors the Indian region’s history and culture.

The sudden death of the 52-year-old artist, who enjoyed a cult-like status among millions of his fans in and outside Assam, triggered a massive outpouring of grief that further cemented his stature as a public figure whose appeal spanned divisions that have otherwise fractured the state. Garima Saikia Garg, the singer’s wife, claimed that her husband “suffered a seizure attack” while swimming in the ocean.

While Hussain was mourning Garg’s death, so was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is accused by critics of fanning Hindu-Muslim divisions nationally and in Assam.

In a condolence message, Modi said, “He will be remembered for his rich contribution to music.” “His renditions were very popular among people across all walks of life”.

Assam’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who belongs to Modi’s party, said the state “lost one of its favourite sons”.

The music that Zoubeen sang directly to our minds and souls was unmatched in its ability to energize people. He has left a void that will never be filled”, Sarma said.

When Sarma returned from Singapore, the Assam government imposed four days of state mourning.

A polarised backdrop

Tens of thousands of Garg’s fans gathered outside Guwahati, the largest city in Assam, on September 21 for a two-day gathering. They waited as state officials received Garg’s body after it landed.

Then, they marched in unison behind a convoy carrying the body to a stadium, which was located about 30 kilometers (19 miles) away, for public viewing and sang some of his most well-known songs. Some held his posters, while others walked teary-eyed with candles in their hands. Garg was cremated on September 23 with full state honors and a 21-gun salute following four days of state mourning.

Those scenes of unity were a break from the religious and linguistic fractures that have deepened in Assam in recent years.

The fault lines between the Indigenous Assamese-speaking and the mostly migrant Bengali-speaking communities in Assam aren’t new: They go back nearly two centuries, when the British brought large numbers of Bengali-speaking Hindus from Bengal to run the colonial bureaucracy, creating resentment among the Indigenous Assamese who feared the outsiders would take their jobs and occupy lands.

With India’s independence and the establishment of Pakistan, which included the region that in 1971 declared itself the independent nation of Bangladesh, a second wave of Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims moved to Assam. Millions of people migrated from Bangladesh to Assam in these years, triggering backlash from the Indigenous Assamese, which often turned violent.

As a result of growing suspicions over the identity and nationality of primarily Bengali-speaking Muslims, pejoratively referred to as “miya,” and thousands of them being declared “Bangladeshi infiltrators” by Indian security forces, many of whom have been detained or forced to cross over to Bangladesh, these ethnic and religious tensions continue to dominate Assam’s politics even today.

Garg was composing his music against this polarised backdrop, responding to the communal fissures with his verses and voice.

The singer frequently referred to himself as an atheist and “social leftist” as he distanced himself from the state’s centrist parties, the BJP, and the right-wing BJP.

He was also a vocal critic of India’s deeply entrenched caste system.

A stage person is seen teasing Garg for not wearing the sacred thread worn by other Brahmins, who are at the top of Hinduism’s complex caste hierarchy, in an undated video that has gone viral shortly after his death.

Garg shot back, saying, “I am just a human. I don’t identify as a caste, believe, or worship.

In another instance, Garg in 2018 encouraged famous female Assamese Olympian, Hima Das, to consume beef in order to “gain strength” to compete in international and national sports events. The cow is revered by many Hindus of lower castes, and several Indian states prohibit its slaughter and consumption. It is unclear whether Das accepted Garg’s advice.

He was also at the forefront of a campaign in 2019 against India’s contentious new citizenship law, which established religion as a basis for granting immigrants from neighboring countries, excluding Muslims, citizenship. The law led to nationwide protests against Modi’s government, while the United Nations called it “fundamentally discriminatory” and urged a review.

Dr. Medussa, an assamese social media expert, claimed Garg’s public views made him a symbol of Hindu-Muslim harmony as anti-Muslim hate permeated Assamese society.

“It is precisely because of Zubeen’s persona of being inclusive, and how he represented marginalised communities through his songs, that his legacy is being claimed by all”, said Medusssa, who requested to be identified by her social media name.

He disobeyed any particular community. He was for all”.

The way the singer approached the politics of dissent, according to Akhil Ranjan Dutta, a political scientist at Gauhati University in Assam, partly contributes to the celebration of Garg by Modi and Sarma, despite the dissident artist’s opposition to Hindu majoritarianism.

“While he]Garg] would openly criticise the policies and the actions of the federal and state-level BJP governments, he would seldom attack BJP leaders]personally]”, Dutta told Al Jazeera. Because not mourning him would otherwise expose them to scrutiny, the BJP can use his legacy.

Another political commentator who did not wish to be named – fearing reprisal from the government – was more blunt in his view of Garg’s ability to bridge political divisions.

Garg was dismissive of the BJP as a political party, but the commentator claimed that he would not offend people by criticizing their anti-Muslim policies or attacks on Muslims in open public. “That way, the Hindu nationalist party never feel too alienated by him”.

“Artistic tour de force!”

Born in 1972 to Assamese writer Mohini Mohan Borthakur and singer Ily Borhakur in Assam’s Jorhat town, Garg began singing at the age of three and was soon regarded as a child prodigy by his teachers. He relocated to Guwahati to pursue a singing career, and his debut Assamese album, Anamika, was his first major success in 1992.

It was the beginning of an illustrious career that saw Garg singing more than 38, 000 songs in dozens of languages and dialects. He also sang a number of songs for Bollywood movies, including Gangster: A Love Story, which featured his Hindi hit Ya Ali in 2006.

The next year, Garg won the national award for composing songs for the non-feature film, Echoes of Silence. He later branched out into acting and direction, going by the nickname Zubeen Da among other nicknames.

But more than Garg’s body of work, says Angshuman Choudhury, a joint doctoral candidate at the National University of Singapore and King’s College London, what made him a musical phenomenon was his refusal to conform to the archetype of a “tamed” and “cultured Assamese artist”.

According to Choudhury, the state’s popular culture largely existed before the 1990s when musicians like Bhupen Hazarika and Janyata Hazarika, who “respected norms of social civility, never deviated from the script, and lacked the audacity that Garg was, were shaping it.”

“Garg, on the other hand, was an artistic tour de force in Assam. According to Choudhury, whose doctoral research examines the ethnicity and politics of northeast India, “he distorted and disrupted the very image of a public performer and artist.”

“He would use verbal expletives while on stage, sing under intoxication, and on many occasions, show overt defiance against established norms and culture”.

For instance, he once declined to perform at a concert to celebrate Bihu, which is arguably Assam’s most significant festival, after the organizers informed him that he couldn’t sing in Hindi.

Prithiraj Borah, a sociologist from Assam who teaches at the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research in Hyderabad, said that Garg’s art also touched deeper, emotional and philosophical questions.

He claimed that Zoubeen’s songs were more than entertainment. “They also addressed the depths of what it means to be human, to love, to suffer, and to find meaning in an often-absurd world”.

Borah discusses freedom and captivity in his song Pakhi Pakhi Ei Mon (My heart is like a feather).

“The feather becomes a metaphor for the human condition, caught between the desire for liberty and the reality of various constraints”, Borah said.

accessible to all

Abrar Nadim, a health officer in Assam’s Barpeta district, says he has memorised most of Garg’s songs since he was four.

As he sat next to a garlanded poster of Garg, Nadim, 30, he yelled, “His song, Aei Mayar Dhorat [In this world of earthly pleasures] brought me to spirituality,” he said in black as he prayed for his final rest.

“The song describes temporary happiness in this world where corrupt people enjoy even after committing acts of injustice, corruption, and oppression, but little remains in the end”.

Maitrayee Patar, a prominent Assamese songwriter and poet, who had collaborated with the singer, including as recently as in 2023, said Garg, as an artist, “exuded a humanitarian side that was raw and relatable to all”.

He “refused to support majoritarian politics or any political parties, which made him appear to be a beloved artist,” Patar told Al Jazeera.

As clips from Garg’s songs and old interviews flood Assam’s social media, Hussain, the Bengali-Muslim truck driver in Guwahati, says his staunch rejection of hate politics and his humility in treating everyone as equal made him accessible to all.

Garg was a Hindu. But after his death, students in madrasas – Islamic schools – were seen playing his songs, while Muslim leaders held prayers in his honour and recited the Quran before his photos – grieving practices not typically allowed by Islamic tenets.

Nadim remarked, “He]Garg sang jikir, devotional folk songs sung by the Assamese-speaking Muslim community, to honor us.” “So there is nothing wrong if we pray for him by singing his songs”.

Truck driver Hussain, who wore a T-shirt with Garg’s photo, recalled how Garg “never vilified” Bengali-speaking Muslims back in Guwahati.

Hussain hummed Garg’s iconic 2007 hit, Maya (Illusion) – a song in which the singer likens chasing a love interest to an illusion. Hussein claimed that the calming melody made him think of the void left by the death of the Garg.