New Delhi: As tensions simmer in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), where deadly clashes between protesters and police took place over the weekend, India on Tuesday (June 9) said it hopes the international community will hold Islamabad accountable “for its misdeeds and its abuses”.Asked about purported attempts to blame India for the unrest, the external affairs ministry also said Pakistan is making “desperate” attempts to “cover up its own failings”.“We continue to see in this context a pattern of fake news and videos emanating from Pakistan. It is a desperate attempt by Pakistan to cover up its own failings and deflect attention away from its human rights abuses,” ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Tuesday.Referring to reports of “police brutality” as well as fatalities and injuries in PoK, he added that India hopes “the international community will hold Pakistan accountable for its misdeeds and its abuses”.Those parts of PoK that Islamabad calls Azad Jammu and Kashmir have been tense amid the administration’s crackdown on the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) civil society organisation, which has been agitating over regional issues since its formation in 2023.After talks with the Pakistani government failed last month the JAAC had scheduled a strike and a march for Tuesday to protest the reservation of 12 seats in the regional legislature for Kashmiri settlers in Pakistan, alleging that the country’s mainstream political parties use them to exercise undue influence on the local government’s formation.However the local administration banned the JAAC under anti-terrorism laws last Friday and began arresting its members besides cutting off internet access in the region, while the local top court went on to rule that the 12 seat-quota may only be changed by a constitutional amendment.Also on Friday the local police shot dead trader and reported JAAC member Shahzeb Habib in the Poonch region, alleging that he and other occupants of their car opened fire on the security personnel.JAAC members gathered outside a hospital in the region’s Rawalakot town where Habib’s body was kept and in the subsequent clashes with police 11 people were killed, including four security personnel and six protesters.Dawn wrote on Tuesday that hundreds of people had reportedly gathered in the Mirpur and Kotli towns, where shops were closed and vehicular movement came to a standstill.Deadly clashes between the JAAC and the police have taken place in the past as well, including in October last year.Amnesty International said of the recent unrest in PoK that “branding a grassroots organisation as ‘terrorist’ on vague grounds, while simultaneously cutting the region off from the outside world, raises serious concerns regarding the Pakistani authorities’ conduct and their disregard for human rights”.“The authorities must conduct an independent inquiry into allegations of the extrajudicial killing of Shahzeb Habib, a thorough and independent investigation into unlawful killings of protesters in Rawalakot and also investigate the alleged deaths of police officers,” the human rights outfit said on Tuesday.