Low Strategic Political Diplomatic Interest In Western Newsrooms Citing Media Restrictions News Blackouts By Pakistani Regime

Even As Others Report Ruthless Military Bloodshed In PoK, Balochistan,& Widespread Battling With Separatists In Other Provinces Too

The unrest in the most important district of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) has in recent days claimed over one hundred lives at the hands of firing from the Pakistan Rangers. Unarmed demonstrators were shot in cold blood. Tear gas was used. Water cannons too.

There is a blanket ban on foreign media reporting by sending teams to the region, the internet has been cut off, and the only places foreign media can operate freely is in the far-away cities of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. The foreign media need NOCs to travel elsewhere. Al Jazeera has been banned for its reporting on PoK despite being from a fellow Islamic country.

By way of contrast, the recent CJP protests in New Delhi with their government overthrowing intentions and massive foreign backing by way of funds, received unrestricted and gleeful coverage in the Western media and internet-based mediums. The West likes to depict the NDA government as authoritarian and undemocratic, and ends up exposing only its bias and predetermined script. The West is fearful of India’s progress and feels threatened by it. So much so, that Zuckerberg’s Meta, erstwhile Facebook, is under investigation for taking down a video message from the prime minister. This, while giving all the critical and abusive noise from the students, their violent hired goons from amongst 2500 history sheeters, past their sell-by date celebrities attracted by the fee to attend, every liberty on its platform.

Meanwhile across the LoC, individuals travelling physically out of locked-down zones like Rawalkot and Mirpur carry saved video files, photographs, casualty lists on thumb drives or memory cards and upload them from Lahore, Islamabad or Karachi where the internet is allowed to work. Or sometimes, from border areas along the LoC where the signal from Indian Jammu and Kashmir is available.

The social media worldwide as a consequence is full of information on the repression in PoK, Balochistan-via the same methods mostly from Karachi, other parts of Pakistan where too guerilla warfare between Afghan and Baloch mujahideen and Pakistani security forces has become the order of the day. The formal media in the West, despite discouragement from their governments that wish to favour Pakistan, have no choice but to give it some coverage based sometimes on reportage and demonstrations from their capitals. There is too much on the social media from first hand sources, if not their own, for them to ignore.

Pressure groups of Kashmiris, human rights groups, students, are demonstrating in London and this has been widely covered in the British press. The recent second phase of ‘local elections’ held in PoK are mostly rigged and being called a sham by the locals and a ‘complete farce’ by India, though the West is largely silent on them.

Western Intelligence Services, including those in America, unlike the Western media they try to keep a lid on, know exactly what is going on in Pakistan and it terrifies them.  This critical situation on Pakistan’s stability is the well-known covert position. Without Pakistan as an effective pressure point, the West’s options with regard to India, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, West Asia, and so on is altered for the first time in 75 years, and will have to be viably reworked using other countries.

The West is horrified about a disintegrating Pakistan that is beyond their control or ability to prevent, despite the so-called and much flaunted nuclear weapons calculus. Trouble is, whether it works or not, it cannot be utilised without total self-destruction. India has already called Pakistan’s bluff on their resolve and preparedness during Operation Sindoor recently. It won’t hesitate to do so again if the situation warrants it, all the while having strengthened its own triad-based nuclear response mechanism for those who would like to threaten it.

India, for the moment, is quietly watching the proceedings in Pakistan, warily looking out for a terror strike or cross border attack upon it to distract the Pakistani people from their dire straits. Assuming India is not able to prevent and anticipate any misadventures, it stands to benefit from the break-away movement in PoK, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa if it has to retaliate.

Balochistan has already declared independence from Pakistan on August 11, 2026, and invited other countries to recognise it as such. It has made it very difficult for Pakistan to have any say in more than 42% of its landmass. Pakistan has lost hundreds of security forces in the mineral rich province in recent times. The Chinese built port of Gwadar, other mining locations where the Chinese run things, have become inoperative. The  Chinese built road from Xinkiang via PoK and through Pakistan is unsafe and in shambles.

India could, given the volatile circumstances, also use any attack either via the Pakistani theatres of the LoC and the international border, or in concert with Bangladesh, to its benefit when it inevitably retaliates. Either PoK/Gilgit Baltistan or the Chicken Neck area near Bangladesh, or indeed both, plus the Chittagong port area, could fall to India if the opportunity presents itself. It will be difficult for others to intervene under prevailing geopolitical circumstances. This, while India’s ally Afghanistan is hoping the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province along the disputed Durand Line also falls towards Afghanistan. PoK actually has a land border with Afghanistan as well, as does Balochistan.

Pakistan to the Western  strategic thinking is geographically well located to keep checks on India, China, Iran, Afghanistan, amongst other countries. To have it break up is a nightmare to it, and yet the West doesn’t have a way to keep its population, as opposed to  is miniscule powers-that-be in the Pakistani establishment satisfied.

The chickens are coming home to roost. Not only is West Punjab the dominant province, it is the nuclear-powered epicentre of Pakistan, and absorbs most of the resources. The country as a whole is bankrupt despite frequent injections of capital from the IMF and countries like Saudi Arabia. It still gets money and weapons from a disenchanted China owed bad loans in trillions of dollars, but still keen on using Pakistan against India. But who will take care of its 259.5 million people who are disgruntled and destitute?

Whatever monies Pakistan is able to get from abroad is gobbled up by its oligarchic military and political ruling class. There is no way to bypass the ruling elite and the people are at breaking point despite acute surveillance and repression. Pakistan is indeed without exaggeration on the brink of an imminent break-up caused by gross maladministration and its near starving masses. The crack-up could come within a year or two and when it does no amount of media blackout can keep the world from finding out.

 

  (1,111 words)

August 5^th, 2026

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee