WASHINGTON: While all eyes were on the fireworks between Pakistan and India inside the United Nations last week, demonstrations by a large group of Mohajirs against the Pakistani establishment – largely unnoticed by a media focused on what was happening within the UN – is revealing the new fault lines in a country that has long believed it can unfasten Jammu & Kashmir from the Indian union.

Videos of the protest demonstrations are only now appearing in the social media, causing consternation in Pakistan, where talk show hosts are aghast that a country that is trying to put Kashmir on the negotiating table with India is having trouble with a section of its own people who were primarily responsible for the formation of Pakistan. Mohajir is a term used for Muslim refugees from India who migrated to Pakistan after seeking a separate homeland.

READ ALSO:

Nawaz Sharif rakes up Kashmir issue again

''Shocking…completely shocking. I have no words for this,'' exclaimed Marvi Memon, a ruling party lawmaker in Pakistan after watching clips of the protests outside UN. ''Azadi has been attained in 1947. If they have issues they should negotiate with the Government of Pakistan…the blood of every Pakistani will be boiling at this.''

Videos of the demonstrations show hundreds of protesters chanting ''Azadi'' (freedom), which is the rallying cry for some separatist Kashmiris in J&K. The US wing of the Pakistan’s mainstream Mohajir Quami Movement, which organized the demonstrations, openly acknowledged its role and the rallying cry in a statement, saying, ''While Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was addressing the United Nation General Assembly, raising the Kashmir issues and atrocities of Indian state in Kashmir, MQM USA chapter was protesting against state terrorism on 50 million Mohajirs in Pakistan.''

''Fifty million Mohajirs and their representative political party are being labeled as Indian and RAW agents in Pakistan by country’s ruling elite. Pakistan’s judicial system has failed to provide any justice or relief to Muhajirs and that’s why we had no option but to raise our voice against injustice in front of United Nations,'' said Mohammed Arshad Hussain, described as the joint organizer of the protest.

READ ALSO: India hits back at Pakistan for raising Kashmir at UN

Expectedly, the Pakistani establishment think the protest was masterminded by Indians, who in turn accuse the Pakistanis of funding separatist Khalistanis and Kashmiris, who held much smaller demonstrations. At least in the case of Kashmiris separatists, US law enforcement has established a money trail of Pakistani government funding.

Meanwhile, Mohajirs in UK and US have grown increasingly restive over the past few months in the face of the crackdown on the MQM in its Karachi stronghold by the Pakistani Rangers, a para-military force seen as part of the Punjabi establishment.

READ ALSO: Pakistan cracks showing as Mohajir leader appeals to UN, US, India for rescue

Separately, Baloch dissidents have also stepped up their activity outside Pakistan, lobbying for a separate state in Washington, London, and even New Delhi, where the Indian establishment has dropped any pretense of indifference and allowed its political representatives to hold meetings. Baloch exiles have also begun to call attention to the plight of their countrymen on the Hill, where some lawmakers, notably California’s Dana Rohrabacher, have called on Pakistan to recognise the Baloch right to self-determination.

With a section of the Mohajirs too heading down the track to ''azadi,'' and New Delhi turning the spotlight on Pakistani human rights violations and tenuous hold on Balochistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Islamabad is finding that its support for Kashmir separatism in India has its own blowback.

READ THIS IN HINDI: पाकिस्तान से 'आजादी' चाहते हैं करोड़ों मुहाजिर