Latest news with #MahrangBaloch
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First Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- First Post
Baloch must embrace civil disobedience to resist Pakistan's repression
From Gandhi's Salt March in colonial India to the sit-ins led by Black students in segregated America, history shows that justice has always advanced when ordinary people chose civil disobedience over silent suffering read more What options are left when every legal path is blocked, when even mourning becomes a punishable act, and a mother clutching her son's photograph is seen as a danger? When the courts, human rights commissions, and press clubs all turn their backs, what remains is not hope, but a quiet determination to endure and to resist. The past year has made one thing clear to the oppressed Baloch nation: the state has no interest in dialogue, justice, or reform. The crackdown on the Baloch Yakjehti Committee; the arrests of peaceful activists like Mahrang Baloch, Sibghat Ullah Shahji, and Beebagr Baloch; the brutal response to the long march to Islamabad and the Baloch National Gathering in Gwadar—none of this was accidental. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD It is part of a long-standing campaign to silence and intimidate Baloch voices through brute force. These were not militants, but students, lawyers, doctors and families searching for their missing loved ones. They carried placards, chanted slogans and held photographs. In return, they faced repression, arrests, baton charges, tear gas and complete indifference from the very institutions meant to uphold their rights. In March 2025, in Balochistan's capital Quetta, families of the missing came to the streets alongside young activists to demand answers. These were families who had spent years searching for their loved ones—sons, daughters, and brothers who had disappeared without a trace. They called for the release of detained members of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee and others held without charge. The state responded not with dialogue or compassion but with violence. Pakistani forces opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing three children in broad daylight. Those who spoke out were arrested, and those who stood in solidarity were harassed and intimidated. Grieving women were dragged and manhandled in the streets, while Mahrang Baloch, a leading voice of the movement, was taken into custody along with others in a wave of unlawful detentions. In a political order where peaceful dissent is met with such force, mass civil disobedience is no longer just a right; it becomes a moral duty. And now, as Baloch women and sisters themselves are being abducted, harassed and even killed, as they were in Awaran, Kech and Quetta, the red line has been crossed once again. This time, the response cannot follow the same path. It must take the shape of mass civil disobedience. A refusal to continue participating in a system that criminalises identity and grief. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Baloch must now break the illusion of normalcy that the state depends on. Let teachers resign until the disappeared are returned or at least acknowledged. Let bureaucrats leave their offices and stop lending their labour to a government that erases their families. Let students refuse to sit in classrooms where their accents turn them into suspects. Let shopkeepers shut their stores, transport come to a halt and the roads empty. The state's authority should be met with collective and determined withdrawal. And let the Baloch people march again, not to courtrooms that offer no justice or press clubs that refuse to speak the truth, but to the gates of military cantonments and intelligence offices, where so many of the disappeared were last seen, where countless others continue to face inhumane torture. Let them stand before the institutions that built this terror and say, 'Abduct or kill us too. You abducted our sons and our daughters. You killed our mothers. We will not live half-lives anymore.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This is not some distant ideal or romantic notion. It has happened before, and it can happen again. From Gandhi's Salt March in colonial India to the sit-ins led by Black students in segregated America, history shows that justice has always advanced when ordinary people chose civil disobedience over silent suffering. When the law serves only power, disobedience becomes the highest expression of civic duty. Gandhi did not defeat the British with rifles; he broke their hold by daring them to arrest him, knowing thousands more would rise in his place. The Civil Rights Movement did not end segregation through appeasement but through the unbearable moral clarity of young people being hosed down for trying to go to school. The resistance that authoritarian states fear most is not violent—it is moral, disciplined, and impossible to ignore. Pakistan may fear militants in the mountains, but what it fears even more is unarmed, organised resistance. It fears a protest that refuses to disappear, one that grows stronger each time it is attacked. It fears women like Mahrang Baloch, who stand before cameras and say, 'We are not asking for charity; we are demanding justice. Stop your barbarity in Balochistan and give us answers.' And it fears thousands like her—people who carry no weapons, only the weight of memory and the strength to keep speaking when silence is safer. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The state has made it clear, time and again, that it has no tolerance for peaceful dissent. This is exactly why the leaders of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee were targeted—not because they took up arms or incited violence, but because they refused to be silent. They were not punished for insurrection but for daring to organise within the bounds of the law. They were not arrested for agitation but for remembering the disappeared. When a state begins to treat remembrance itself as a threat, when mourning is labelled as sedition, it becomes painfully clear that the era of appeals, petitions, and commissions is over. Civil disobedience offers a way forward that does not rely on violence but on collective courage and dignity. Imagine mothers standing in quiet rows outside Pakistani military camps, holding nothing but photographs of their missing children. Imagine students walking out of universities in protest, not for privilege, but because their language or surname has marked them as suspects. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Imagine entire neighbourhoods marching together to the gates of military installations with a clear message: 'We will not cooperate in our own erasure.' This is not disorder or chaos; it is disciplined, purposeful resistance. It is the reclaiming of moral ground in a system built on denial and repression. The question is no longer whether the Baloch should resist but how to resist in a way that is effective, principled, and enduring. The answer lies in resistance that is nonviolent, collective, and unwavering. Continuing to beg a state that responds only with indiscriminate firing, tear gas, batons, and silence is a slow and suffocating death. Mass disobedience is never easy. It requires discipline, sacrifice, and unity that reaches across cities, communities, and generations, from Awaran to Kech, Gwadar to Quetta, Panjgur to Pasni. Yet it remains the only form of protest that carries both moral legitimacy and the power to shake the foundations of repression. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Let the state be forced to choose between acknowledging its violence or exposing its fear of peace. Let it come to understand that if it continues to criminalise grief, then grief will grow beyond its control. Let it face the reality of Baloch mothers who no longer beg but who will not walk away either. And let it be clear that if the state insists on erasing the Baloch, then the Baloch will step away from the very system that depends on their silence and cooperation. This is what settles in when people have tried everything—waited outside courts, knocked on every door, held up photographs, but nothing changed. When silence and oppression are all the state offers, the only thing left is to say no, together. This is not a call to destroy but a call to sit down, to disrupt the system peacefully and refuse to be pushed aside any longer. And if the state sees even that as a threat, then let it do what it has done to so many before. Let it abduct us too. Let it kill us too. But we won't be silent, and we won't fade away like our lives don't matter. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Dilshad Baluch is a journalist from Pakistan's Balochistan Province and a graduate of Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @DilshadBaluch. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
Express Tribune
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Sister challenges Mahrang's detention in apex court
A sister of Baloch rights activist Dr Mahrang Baloch has approached the Supreme Court against an order of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) in her sister's detention case. A division bench of the BHC on April 15 dismissed Dr Mahrang's petition against her detention under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, 1960, stating that an alternative remedy was available to the activist in the shape of a representation. The bench had also converted the petition into a representation and directed its office to present it before the competent authority constituted for the purpose of deciding representations under the MPO. The petitioner, Nadia Baloch, contended that the BHC erred in holding that a petition could be filed before a court only after exhausting the option of filing a representation. The petition argued that the high court in its writ jurisdiction is competent to intervene and directly grant relief to a petitioner by determining the legality of an MPO order without the need of the detained person making a representation. It said that the BHC did not consider Dr Mahrang's right to file habeas corpus petition. "[This is her] high prerogative right and a constitutional remedy for all matters if illegal confinement," the petition said.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rights Activist Mahrang Baloch Writes From a Pakistan Prison
Supporters of Balochistan National Party carry posters of Mahrang Baloch during a protest in Quetta on May 2, 2025. Credit - Banaras Khan—AFP/Getty Images It has been more than two and a half months since I was thrown into prison—Hudda Prison, in Quetta, Pakistan, the same place father was caged nearly two decades ago, also for promoting the rights of the people of Balochistan. Since my arrest, Pakistan's state secuity agencies have deployed every tactic to break me. I have been offered a deal: stay silent, avoid political activity, and you can be home. I refused. The state has failed to produce a single piece of evidence linking me to any act of violence or criminality. The only "proof" they cite is a press conference I gave a few days before my March 22 arrest. I spoke to reporters after armed militants had hijacked a train and held 300 passengers hostage for hours. The attack occurred in the Balochistan, the largest province in Pakistan, and was carried out by Baloch separatists who have been fighting with the state for decades. At the press conference, I spoke not to defend the hijackers—our movement, the Baloch Yakjehti [Unity] Committee, has always renounced violence. Indeed, my intention was to draw a distinction between those who confront the state with arms and those who confront it with words. It's a crucial distinction, one the state prefers to blur. In Pakistan, 'terrorist' is a label pinned on anyone who advocates for Baloch rights. Those who speak up run the risk of arrest by military and intelligence agencies. After their arrest, they might never be seen again. If they are, it is often as a body, produced after a violent incident like the train was why I asked reporters: Who were the more than two dozen 'unidentified' bodies brought to Quetta's Civil Hospital after the hijacking? And why were 13 of them buried overnight without being named? The attackers, the Baloch Liberation Army, had released pictures and details of the 12 militants it said were killed. The identities of the rest were a mystery, but we had our suspicions. In Balochistan it is common practice, after violent episodes, for the forcibly disappeared persons to be put to death, and their bodies produced as those of militants. I demanded DNA testing of those who had been buried in the dead of night. Families of the disappeared feared, with good reason, that their loved ones were among more: Pakistan Jails Baloch Human Rights Activist So I am in jail for insisting on the distinction between peaceful activism and violence. My work had already drawn unwelcome international attention. In May 2024, Pakistani officials were outraged after I visited Norway at the invitation of PEN Norway, the Norwegian branch of PEN International and the World Expression Forum. I was even harassed on Norwegian soil by individuals linked to Pakistan's embassy in Oslo, whose intervention was ended by the Norwegian domestic security agency, PST. When I returned to Pakistan, I was immediately charged with sedition, and treated as if I had returned from an ISIS camp in Syria or Iraq rather than one of the most peace-loving countries in the world. In October, the government's smear campaigns amplified with my inclusion on the TIME100 Next Emerging Leaders. I was called 'Malala 2' and a Western puppet. Surveillance around me intensified, and I was placed on the Fourth Schedule, an anti-terror watch list typically reserved for hardened militants, and which restricts the movement and activities of the listed. I was barred from travelling abroad. I am learning the price of peaceful activism. For decades, Pakistan has kept the rest of the country, and the world, in the dark about Balochistan. It remains an information black hole. Among those the military and intelligence agencies have forcibly disappeared, killed, or forced into exile are journalists who dare to write about these atrocities. According to the Balochistan Union of Journalists, more than 40 have been killed since 2000. Foreign media are denied access to the region. From this darkness, a woman leading a grassroots movement for Baloch rights was unacceptable. The hostility of the state intensified with the BBC's 100 Women list, and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. But if international pressure has prevented my being killed, I face psychological warfare, threats, and the constant spectre of danger. I write this the day my sister told me that the Islamic State of Khorasan (ISIS-K) released a 100-page Urdu-language booklet accusing me of being a Western agent. Their "evidence"? The TIME honor and Norway trip. Other BYC leaders are in jail with me: Sabghat Ullah Shah Jee, Beebarg Zehri (a disabled man), Gulzadi, and Beebow. I tell them: We are not the first to be imprisoned for demanding peace, justice, and rights. From Nelson Mandela to Narges Mohammadi, we walk the same path. We draw strength from their courage, intellect, and defiance. Our movement is rooted in peace. We speak against enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, forced displacement, and the systematic denial of basic rights to the Baloch. We are the rightful owners of the Saindak Copper-Gold Project (worth billions of dollars, but the profits are not shared with the local population), the Reko Diq mine (estimated to hold copper and gold reserves worth over $60 billion, but the benefits are not reaching the Baloch people), and Gwadar — the gateway to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Yet, 70% of Balochistan's population lives below the poverty more: Pakistan Bars Activist From Traveling to TIME Event Honoring HerThe state is offended and brands us terrorists and violent. But we are not violent. The state is armed, powerful, and ruthless. It uses violence to silence those who ask for justice. The practices once reserved for the Baloch, considered lesser citizens, are now expanding to other parts of Pakistan. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his party are now under the military's wrath. He is jailed. Is Imran Khan also a terrorist? Are members of his PTI party now "agents of hostile agencies"? If the Pakistan Army and its intelligence agencies are as competent as they claim to be, why have they failed to present a single piece of credible proof? Why have they not held a fair, transparent trial? Because this isn't about the law; it's about fear, their fear of our truth. This prison is more than bricks and bars. It carries the memory of my father. As a child, I visited him here. I didn't grow up playing with toys. I grew up holding posters of my father, who was detained and then disappeared. When I turned eighteen, I received his lifeless, tortured, bullet-riddled body. This is not just my story. It's the story of every child in Balochistan. Childhood here is shaped by grief, fear, and posters of the disappeared. When our generation came of age, those of us raised in the shadows of state violence, we vowed: No child after us should suffer the same fate. We are fully aware of the power imbalance between us and a nuclear-armed state. It controls the media. It runs smear campaigns. It weaponizes the judiciary. It deploys overwhelming force. It controls the parliament. It operates proxy groups and armed militias. Our confinement is part of a war of narratives. Speaking up for justice is not a crime. Raising our voices against state violence is not treason. Demanding rights is not terrorism. It is humanity. And one day, we believe, this struggle will succeed. Contact us at letters@
India Today
02-06-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Baloch women now face brutality of Pakistani establishment
Enforced disappearances, the ruthless tactic of the Pakistani establishment's playbook long used on Baloch men, children, and the elderly, is now being unleashed on women. Women are the new targets of human rights violations in Balochistan, a province where flags of independence have been raised by rebels. Mahjabeen Baloch, a 24-year-old, became the latest victim of the Pakistani state's suppression. She was kidnapped in the last week of disappearance is part of a trend in Balochistan. Since the detention and subsequent arrest of Balochistan's lioness Mahrang Baloch in March, the restive province has seen an uptick in women being targeted, a trend that the Baloch Women Forum says "reflects an alarming escalation in the ongoing human rights violations in Balochistan".An enforced disappearance is an "arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law", says the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).advertisement In Balochistan, the duration of enforced disappearances varies, with many missing for years and some for as long as 18 years. The bodies of some are found years later, dumped or buried in desolate trend of forced disappearances of Baloch women comes even as Pakistan reels under a surge of Baloch armed rebel activity, which has shaken its internal security and its keeper, the military Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had in May admitted that the "state's grip on Balochistan is slipping, especially after nightfall". Amid these growing internal fissures, Army Chief Asim Munir is visibly tightening his BALOCH ABDUCTED DAYS AFTER HER BROTHER'S DISAPPEARANCEIn the early hours of May 29, Mahjabeen Baloch, a 24-year-old library science student at the University of Balochistan, was forcibly detained by personnel from Pakistan's Frontier Corps and intelligence agencies. She was picked up from Quetta's Civil Hospital, and since then, her whereabouts remain unknown, reported The Balochistan detention came less than a week after her brother, Muhammad Younus, an engineering student, was also forcibly taken away from their home in Basima, a town in central was reportedly abducted during a night raid carried out by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).advertisement"Our homes have been raided repeatedly by security forces. Our loved ones have been taken from their beds and their mutilated bodies dumped in desolate places... Many still remain lost in the darkness of enforced disappearance," Mahjabeen's family Baloch Women Forum (BWF) has condemned the incident, and said Mahjabeen's disappearance is the latest example of a growing pattern of "state violence against Baloch women".A HISTORY OF REPRESSIVE ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES IN BALOCHISTANSecessionist sentiment in Balochistan traces back to what many see as Muhammad Ali Jinnah's betrayal in 1948, when the Khan of Kalat was coerced into acceding to Pakistan despite earlier assurances of decades, Balochistan has been a hotbed of unrest, with the ethnic Baloch people agitating against what they perceive as exploitation by the Pakistani establishment, and the Chinese, and their interests tied to projects of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).The Pakistani military and security forces have used enforced disappearances as a tool to suppress dissent, targeting men, children, and the elderly suspected of supporting Baloch nationalist movements or criticising state disappearances often involve abductions without legal process, followed by torture, and in some cases, extrajudicial stark example is the case of Abdul Ghaffar Langove, a Baloch nationalist and father of activist Mahrang Baloch. Abducted in 2009, his body was found in 2011, bearing signs of severe discoveries are not uncommon; families often find the bodies of their loved ones dumped in remote areas, disfigured beyond recognition, as a warning to to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIOED), 2,752 active cases of enforced disappearances were recorded in Balochistan as of January 2024, though human rights groups like the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) estimate the number to be closer to 7,000 since UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern in September 2024 about the "increasing rate of enforced disappearance among persons belonging to ethnic minority groups in Sindh and Balochistan Provinces".TARGETING OF BALOCH WOMEN IS A DISTURBING NEW TRENDWith men locked up and killed by Pakistani security agencies, Baloch women have taken on more prominent roles in protests and activism, through movements like the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC). As a result, they have also become direct targets of state women have also become suicide bombers for the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as part of the armed to Mahjabeen's detention, the Balochistan-based National Democratic Party said that "for years, Baloch men, elderly and young alike, have faced enforced disappearances", and warned that this "cruel trend has now extended to Baloch women", according to a report in The Balochistan Baloch, the 32-year-old doctor-turned-BYC leader, was arrested on March 22, during a peaceful sit-in in Quetta, alongside her sister Mehran-e-Sareng. For nearly 12 hours, their whereabouts were unknown. She has been charged with terrorism, sedition and February 2023, Mahal Baloch, a 28-year-old mother of two, was detained by the CTD in Quetta after a raid on her home. Her young daughters were also detained overnight. In another case, Rasheeda Zehri was forcibly taken away in February 2023, marking an early instance of this precise numbers of women abducted are harder to verify due to under-reporting, the BWF has noted that the targeting of women is a "deeply disturbing development" that violates cultural norms and human UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, expressed concern over the detention of Mahrang and other women, urging Pakistani authorities to "refrain from abusing counter-terrorism or public safety measures against human rights defenders".advertisement"Mahrang Baloch's case highlights the increasing targeting of women activists in Pakistan. Women who challenge the status quo face not only political persecution but also threats of gender-based violence," Amnesty International's coordinator for Pakistan, Irfan Ali, they came for the Baloch men, then the children and the elderly, now the women. And this signals a troubling expansion of the Pakistani establishment's repression in Balochistan.
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First Post
26-05-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Is Pakistan's ISI using ISIS to threaten Balochistan activists?
While Pakistan tries to whitewash its image, the latest manifesto of ISIS-K targets Baloch rights activists, including Mahrang Baloch. The terror group was also seen parroting the same narrative pushed by Pakistan's ISI. Read our exclusive read more Portraits of Baloch missing persons are seen by their family members at a sit-in protest camp, in Islamabad, Pakistan Monday, Dec. 25, 2023. File Image / AP While Pakistan denies claims that it is fostering terror groups on its soil , the Baloch civilians and activists in the country are facing threats from the Islamic State (ISIS) terror cells. In recent weeks, the transnational terrorist organisation announced war on the Baloch militant groups, like the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Balochistan Liberation Front. However, a prominent Baloch rights activist, who asked to remain anonymous, told Firstpost that the terror group is also targeting Baloch civilians and political protesters. The activist from the Baloch Yakjehti Committee told Firstpost that ISIS has been allegedly linking the missing Baloch civilians and their families to militant groups like BLA and BLF. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The source noted that the group issued a 117-page booklet, claiming that the activists are against 'the rules of Islam'. The front page of the booklet featured Manzoor Pashteen, leader of Pashteen Tahafuz movement, Bashir Zeb, leader of Baloch liberation army and a faceless woman. The cover image of the ISIS booklet features Manzoor Pashteen, leader of Pashteen Tahafuz movement, Bashir Zeb, leader of Baloch liberation army and a faceless female. Image Source: BYC The picture is believed to be depicting prominent Baloch activist Dr Mahrang Baloch. Just last year, TIME Magazine included the Baloch human rights activist on the TIME100 Next list for her efforts to raise the Baloch plight. While her activism was celebrated around the world, on March 22, Dr Mahrang Baloch was arrested by the Pakistani authorities during a peaceful sit-in where she was demonstrating against police violence on protesters from the previous day. In the photographs of the booklet shared by the source to Firstpost, Dr Baloch's name was explicitly mentioned. In the provocative manifesto, Dr Mahrang was referred to as 'Kafir, a Muslim who has left Islam and became non Muslim,' the source said. In the booklet, Dr Mahrang Baloch's name was explicity mentioned, she was referred to as 'Kafir, a Muslim who have left Islam and became non Muslim. Image Source: FP Sources How is ISI involved in all this? The game of narratives While speaking on the matter, the Baloch activist told Firstpost that ISIS has been promoting the same narrative often pushed by Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence, also known as ISI. 'It [the manifesto] totally shows this is promoting the narrative of ISI and going to target Baloch activists,' the source told Firstpost. The source explained that both ISIS and ISI paint Baloch rights activists as 'soft faces of militants'. When asked why Pakistan's ISI would use ISIS to terrorise Baloch civilians, the Baloch activists gave a simple response: Growing public awareness about atrocities against Baloch civilians. 'The ISI has long sought to continue human rights violations and exploit the region's resources without accountability. However, our peaceful movement has exposed their actions to the world, which is why they are now targeting us in an attempt to silence our voices. Despite their efforts, they have failed,' the source told Firstpost. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'Currently, Dr. Mahrang Baloch and four of our leaders — Beebarg Baloch, Beebu Baloch, Gulzadi Baloch, and Shaji Baloch — are unjustly imprisoned. My own father forcibly disappeared as part of a pressure tactic to force my surrender. The state continues to brutally suppress every protest, yet we have not stopped resisting.' Mahrang Baloch has been nominated for the 2025 Nobel Prize. Image: mahrangbaloch__/Instagram Now, as public awareness grows and the people's resentment against state oppression deepens, they (ISI) are shifting strategies. Since open violence is increasingly being condemned both locally and internationally, they may resort to using groups like ISIS to further suppress us. This allows them to deflect criticism, evade responsibility, and even gain international sympathy because any violence blamed on a banned terrorist group distances the state from accountability," the source furthered. Against the backdrop of the alleged threat coming from the ISI-ISIS combo, the BYC had to cancel its rallies in different regions across Balochistan. When asked if there are just threats or the lives of Dr Mahrang Baloch and other rights activists are actually in danger, the source stated: 'This is a threat to all political activists like us, and victim families, who came on the roads just for justice.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD How Baloch civilians are facing the burnt of terror groups During a phone call with Firstpost, the source explained how the tensions between ISIS-K (Islamic State - Khorasan Province) and Daesh actually started. The Pakistani wing of the transnational terror group claimed that militant organisations like BLA and BLF killed 30 people. The source noted that Daesh and the Baloch militant groups have camps in Mastung town in the Balochistan province. The Baloch activist also pointed out that neither the BLA nor the BLF have claimed responsibility for killing Daesh members as of now. Militants from the Baloch Liberation Army in Quetta. File image/AFP However, in the tussle between the two groups, it is the Baloch civilians and activists who are getting dragged into all this. For instance, on March 29, a suicide bomber detonated himself near the rally conducted by Sardar Akhtar Mengal and other leaders of his faction of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) in Mastung. According to Pakistani news outlet The Express Tribune, the rally was en route from Wadh to Quetta when the attack occurred. No casualties were reported in the blast. The demonstration was organised to protest the arrests of Balochistan Yakjehti Committee (BYC) chief organiser Dr Mahrang Baloch and other leaders. The source claimed that the attack was carried out by the Daesh terror group operating in the Khorasan province. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The atrocities by the ISI and the state of Pakistan Not only this, but the Baloch activists and innocent civilians are also facing atrocities at the hands of the Pakistani establishment. 'The ISI has employed a wide range of tactics to target Baloch activists, aiming to silence dissent and suppress the movement. These methods include: Fabricating allegations and spreading false propaganda, intimidation and harassment of activists and their families, misusing anti-terrorism laws and sedition charges to criminalise peaceful activism, etc,' the source told to Firstpost. 'These actions collectively aim to dismantle the peaceful Baloch movement through fear, legal persecution, and economic strangulation,' the source furthered. Baloch activists hold pictures of their missing family members in Islamabad, Pakistan, 2023. File Image: AP The ISIS booklet peddles the same narrative against Baloch activists as formulated earlier by the ISI. This also offers evidence backing the charge that the Pakistani establishment and its security agencies have terror links. This may compound troubles for Pakistan when it's already under global scrutiny for sponsoring terrorism in India, especially in the aftermath of the Pahalgam massacre of tourists.
