Zahid Baloch

Listening to the silent voices carried by the winds of Balochistan.

[Baloch Yakjehti Committee @BalochYakjehtiC]

The Shame
"If You Read This and Do Nothing, You Are the Verdict"

You have read about the July 27 attack.
You have seen the videos of Frontier Corps firing.
You have learned about the life sentences.
You know about the faceless trials.

And you will close this post.
You will scroll to a meme.
You will laugh at a joke.
You will sleep in your bed.

While Dr. Mahrang Baloch sleeps on a prison floor.
While Sibghatullah Shah jee counts bars instead of stars.
While mothers in Balochistan wonder if their sons are in graves or torture cells.

Your comfort is built on their suffering.
Your silence is purchased with their blood.
Your peace is just the absence of their screams in your ears.

If you read this and do nothing
if you share nothing
if you feel nothing

then you are not a citizen.
You are not a human.
You are the Anti-Terrorism Court.
You are the life sentence.
You are the violence.

And history will remember you
exactly as you deserve.

#ReleaseBYCLeaders
#IStandWithBYCLeaders

[Index on Censorship @IndexCensorship]

From Henry Kissinger to Ghassan Kanafani, Nelson Mandela to Noam Chomsky, discover the books Dr Mahrang Baloch is reading in prison.

Dr Baloch is serving a life sentence for her activism for the rights of the Baloch people. She must be released:
https://t.co/c3xWKgWpm4

[Baloch Yakjehti Committee @BalochYakjehtiC]

The mother of Fozia Baloch, an active member of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, has shared a message:

She states that it has been almost three months since her son, Daad Shah, was forcibly disappeared, and to this day there is no information about his whereabouts. She further says that Dr. Mahrang, a prominent voice of the Baloch nation, and other BYC leaders have been detained without any crime.

She urges the authorities to release them and calls for the immediate release of Dr. Mahrang Baloch and Shah Jee Baloch, who, she says, have been charged through false FIRs and baseless allegations.

#ReleaseBYCLeaders
#IStandWithBYCLeaders

[Baloch Yakjehti Committee @BalochYakjehtiC]

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗡𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲

This picture is from the Quetta dharna of 2021. An elderly Amma sits beside Dr. Mahrang Baloch. Mahrang holds her trembling hand and helps her raise a victory sign over the coffin of her grandchildren.

This Amma lost her two grandchildren, Allah Baksh and Sharatoon, when mortar shells fired by the Frontier Corps (FC) hit their home in Hoshab, Kech. Two innocent children were killed. Two small lives were turned into bodies. Two names were added to Balochistan’s long and unbearable register of wounds.

Their family first staged a protest with the children’s bodies at Turbat’s Fida Ahmed Chowk. From there, they marched to Quetta.

Under the leadership of Dr. Mahrang Baloch, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) organised the Quetta sit-in, and the protest spread across different areas of Balochistan.

After days of dharna, Dr. Mahrang Baloch, along with other women and men, carried the funeral on her shoulder at New Kahan Graveyard, Quetta. They laid the children to rest — not from life, but from the cruelty of a system that could not even protect their childhood.

- Why did Allah Baksh and Sharatoon never get justice?

- Why were their killers not questioned?

- The same silence continues to protect power and in return , they ask us to remain calm.

- How can a people remain calm when their children are killed?

- How can a mother remain silent when her home becomes a grave?

How can Mahrang remain quiet when she carries not only the pain of one family, but the pain of an entire nation?

BYC is the Baloch people’s movement. Sentencing its leadership will not deter us, nor will it silence the voices that gave rise to it. A movement rooted in the people cannot be imprisoned.

[Kiyya Baloch @KiyyaBaloch]

A brilliant long read by BBC’s @FarhatJavedR on Mahrang Baloch’s life and struggle against enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and her rise from @TIME 100 Next to @BBC100women , and a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. A must-read.

https://t.co/x356S3fVrs

[Nadia Baloch @NadiaBaloch99]

Over the last few days, government officials and their supporters have repeatedly claimed that Dr. Mahrang Baloch chose to boycott her trial and refused to defend herself.

This deliberately obscures what actually happened.

On 12 June, the authorities introduced a so-called faceless court system for these proceedings. Under that arrangement, Mahrang and the other accused were expected to face charges carrying life imprisonment without being able to properly communicate with their lawyers, without being able to see the witnesses testifying against them, and without any meaningful public scrutiny of the process.

The public was excluded. Journalists were excluded. Families were excluded.

The accused themselves were denied the ability to effectively confront the case being presented against them.

In response, Mahrang, Sabghatullah Shah Ji, their lawyers, and members of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee publicly objected. For days, they demanded an open trial. They did not ask for special treatment. They did not ask for immunity. They asked to see the evidence. They asked to see the witnesses. They asked for the proceedings to be conducted in a manner consistent with the most basic principles of justice.

They said repeatedly that they were prepared to face every allegation brought against them, but they would not accept a process in which a person could be sentenced to life imprisonment without being afforded the fundamental safeguards of a fair trial.

That position is now being dishonestly recast as a refusal to defend themselves.

It was the opposite.

Mahrang did not refuse a defence. She demanded the right to mount one.

The question is not why she objected to a process in which the accused could not properly communicate with counsel or confront witnesses. The question is why those conditions were imposed in the first place.

A state confident in its evidence does not need to hide its proceedings from public view. It does not need a system in which the accused, their lawyers, journalists, and the public are prevented from seeing what is happening inside the courtroom.

Mahrang’s objection was never to being tried.

Her objection was to being denied a fair trial while being told to call it justice.

#ReleaseBYCLeaders
#ReleaseMahrangBaloch

[Fozia Baloch Shashani @FoziaBaloch10]

64 days.
Our family is still waiting.
One voice is still missing.
Our demand remains unchanged: the safe and immediate release of Dad Shah Baloch.
#ReleaseDadShahBaloch
#ReleaseDaadShahBaloch

[یاسر بلوچ @Sarawaan1]

مزاحمت زندگی ہے

خاموشی موت ہے

#ReleaseBYCLeaders

[Reuters Asia @ReutersAsia]

Pakistani rights activist Mahrang Baloch sentenced to life in prison https://t.co/NzI6rripLF

[Kiyya Baloch @KiyyaBaloch]

ماہ رنگ بلوچ اور صبغت اللہ شاہ کو انسداد دہشتگردی کی عدالت کی جانب سے عمر قید کی سزا دئیے جانے پر @mohammedhanif کا وی لاگ

بشکریہ بی بی سی اردو

https://t.co/R7pwkWJS9r

[Zaineb Majoka @z_majoka]

Join us on Sunday June 28th at 3pm at DuPont Circle in Washington DC to call upon Pakistani authorities to overturn these unjust convictions and to protect constitutional rights of its citizens

[International Human Rights Foundation @IHRF_English]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

International Human Rights Foundation (IHRF) Condemns Shameful Life Sentence for Dr. Mahrang Baloch and Sibghatullah Shah by Pakistani Authorities

The Hague, The Netherlands – June 23, 2026 – The International Human Rights Foundation (IHRF) expresses its strongest condemnation regarding the reprehensible life sentence handed down by a Pakistani Anti-Terrorism Court to prominent human rights defender Dr. Mahrang Baloch and her colleague, Sibghatullah Shah .

This verdict is a blatant miscarriage of justice and a devastating blow to the rule of law in Pakistan. Dr. Baloch, a leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), has been a fearless and peaceful voice for the Baloch people, courageously campaigning against enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and state repression in Balochistan . Her only crime is her dedication to exposing grave human rights violations .

The IHRF is deeply alarmed by the egregious procedural irregularities and denial of due process that characterized this “secret trial” . A proceeding that denies the accused the right to effectively cross-examine witnesses or present a proper defense, held in a “faceless court” on jail premises, cannot be considered a legitimate judicial process . This is not justice; it is a politically motivated weaponization of the judicial system to silence dissent and intimidate human rights defenders .

We echo the calls of Amnesty International and other international bodies, who have condemned this verdict as an affront to the right to a fair trial . The state’s cynical misuse of anti-terrorism laws to prosecute peaceful activism represents a dangerous escalation in the crackdown on fundamental freedoms in Pakistan .

The IHRF urges the Government of Pakistan to immediately and unconditionally release Dr. Mahrang Baloch and Sibghatullah Shah, and to ensure their safety and well-being.

We call upon the international community, including the United Nations Human Rights Council, to:

1. Denounce this injustice and place Pakistan under close scrutiny for its escalating human rights violations.
2. Demand transparency in all legal proceedings against human rights defenders and a full investigation into the circumstances of this case.
3. Pressure Pakistani authorities to cease the persecution of peaceful activists and uphold their international obligations regarding due process and fundamental rights.

The IHRF stands in solidarity with Dr. Mahrang Baloch, Sibghatullah Shah, and all peaceful activists in Pakistan who risk their lives for justice and human dignity.

[Khurram Husain @KhurramHusain]

Endless repression and silencing of critical voices in Balochistan is not the answer. People like Mahrang Baloch are trying to say something very important. They should be listened to rather than incarcerated.

https://t.co/3TqMfEeH8t

[Mary Lawlor @MaryLawlorhrds]

Dr Mahrang Baloch #hrd has been a peaceful and steadfast defender of the Baloch people and against the cruelty of disappearances. Her own father was detained & found dead with signs of torture. Her brother too was detained . This life sentence must be quashed @PakUN_Geneva

[Alifya Sohail @AlifyaSohail]

BREAKING: Sindh Bar Council strongly condemns the life sentences handed to Dr Mahrang Baloch and Sibghatullah Baloch, stating that “dissent is not a crime, disagreement is not sedition, and the peaceful assertion of civil liberties can never be treated as an act of disloyalty to the State.”

[Baloch Yakjehti Committee @BalochYakjehtiC]

بلوچ راج!

جیسا کہ آپ سب جانتے ہیں کہ بلوچ یکجہتی کمیٹی کے رہنماؤں، ڈاکٹر ماہ رنگ بلوچ، شاہ جی سبغت اللہ، اور دیگر ساتھیوں کو ایک منظم ریاستی پالیسی کے تحت خاموش کروانے، بلوچ عوام کی آواز کو دبانے اور سیاسی جدوجہد کو کچلنے کے لیے عمر قید کی سزا سنائی گئی ہے۔ یہ فیصلہ صرف چند سیاسی کارکنوں کے خلاف نہیں بلکہ پوری بلوچ قوم کی سیاسی آواز، اجتماعی شعور اور پرامن مزاحمت کے خلاف ایک جابرانہ اقدام ہے۔

بلوچ قوم!

یہ بات روزِ روشن کی طرح عیاں ہے کہ بلوچ یکجہتی کمیٹی ایک عوامی تنظیم ہے، جس کا بنیادی مقصد بلوچستان میں جاری بلوچ نسل کشی، ریاستی جبر، عسکری پالیسیوں، جبری گمشدگیوں، ماورائے عدالت قتل، تشدد، خوف اور ناانصافی کے خلاف آواز اٹھانا ہے۔ بی وائی سی نے دنیا کو یہ باور کرایا ہے کہ بلوچ قوم پاکستانی ریاست کی جبر پر مبنی اس نظام کی شکنجے میں ہے جہاں عوام کے بنیادی سیاسی، انسانی اور قومی حقوق مسلسل پامال کیے جا رہے ہیں۔ بلوچ یکجہتی کمیٹی نے بندوق کے بجائے ماس موبلائزیشن، خوف کے بجائے شعور، خاموشی کے بجائے آواز، اور انتشار کے بجائے تنظیم کا راستہ اپنایا ہے۔ یہی وجہ ہے کہ آج اس کی سیاسی جدوجہد کو نشانہ بنایا جا رہا ہے، کیونکہ جابر قوتیں ہمیشہ منظم عوامی شعور سے خوفزدہ رہتی ہیں۔

غیور بلوچ عوام!

جس طرح بلوچ یکجہتی کمیٹی کے ممبران نے عوامی نمائندگی کرتے ہوئے قوم کو یکجا کیا، پاکستانی ظلم و جبر کو بے نقاب کیا، اور یہ ثابت کیا کہ ظالم چاہے جتنا طاقتور کیوں نہ ہو، منظم سیاسی جدوجہد کے سامنے ہمیشہ کمزور پڑتا ہے، اسی طرح آج بھی اسی شعور، اسی حوصلے اور اسی یکجہتی کے ساتھ ریاستی جبر کو چیلنج کیا جا سکتا ہے۔ یہ وقت خوف کا نہیں، قومی ذمہ داری نبھانے کا ہے۔یہ وقت تنہائی کا نہیں، اجتماعی یکجہتی کا ہے۔
ہمیں یہ واضح پیغام دینا ہوگا کہ بلوچستان میں سیاسی جدوجہد کرنے والوں کو تشدد، مقدمات، قید، ناانصافی اور عمر قید کی سزاؤں کے ذریعے خاموش نہیں کیا جا سکتا۔ پاکستانی اداروں اور بااثر قوتوں کو یہ سمجھنا ہوگا کہ بلوچ عوام اپنی سیاسی قیادت، اپنے کارکنوں اور اپنے قومی حقوق کے لیے جمہوری میدان میں کھڑے رہیں گے۔

بلوچ راج!

آج وقت کا تقاضا بھی یہی ہے اور زندانوں میں قید ہمارے رہنماؤں کا حق بھی یہی ہے کہ ہم انہیں اس مشکل گھڑی میں تنہا نہ چھوڑیں۔ بلوچ ہونے کے ناتے طلبہ، اساتذہ، دانشور، لکھاری، کاروباری حضرات، مزدور، سرکاری ملازمین، ٹرانسپورٹرز، خواتین، نوجوان اور ہر عام و خاص فرد پر یہ سیاسی و قومی ذمہ داری عائد ہوتی ہے کہ وہ ڈاکٹر ماہ رنگ بلوچ، شاہ جی اور دیگر سیاسی کارکنوں کے خلاف اس غیر منصفانہ ریاستی فیصلے کے خلاف منظم انداز میں اٹھ کھڑے ہوں۔ ہمیں اپنے اپنے دائرے میں حکومتِ وقت اور جبر کے نظام کے خلاف پرامن سوشل بائیکاٹ کو ایک مؤثر سیاسی عمل بنانا ہوگا۔ اس ظلم اور ناانصافی کے خلاف آواز اٹھانی ہوگی، لکھنا ہوگا، بولنا ہوگا، عوام کو آگاہ کرنا ہوگا، سفر و ٹرانسپورٹ کے بائیکاٹ میں حصہ لینا ہوگا، اور اپنے سیاسی رہنماؤں کے ساتھ کھڑے ہونے کا عملی ثبوت دینا ہوگا۔

باشعور عوام!

ہمیں چاہیے کہ خواہ ہم کسی بھی طبقہ فکر، ادارے، پیشے یا علاقے سے تعلق رکھتے ہوں، دلیری، جرات اور شعور کا مظاہرہ کریں اور بلوچ یکجہتی کمیٹی کے رہنماؤں کی غیر منصفانہ قید و سزا کے خلاف منظم ہو کر کھڑے ہوں۔

* اگر ہم لکھ سکتے ہیں تو اس جبر کے خلاف لکھیں۔
* اگر ہم بول سکتے ہیں تو عوامی سطح پر آواز بلند کریں۔
* اگر ہم کاروباری افراد ہیں تو تنظیم کی کال پر شٹر ڈاؤن ہڑتال کو کامیاب بنائیں۔
* اگر ہم ٹرانسپورٹرز ہیں تو پرامن بائیکاٹ میں اپنا کردار ادا کریں۔
* اگر ہم سرکاری ملازمین ہیں تو ہڑتال کی حمایت میں جمہوری اور پرامن طریقے سے اپنا احتجاج ریکارڈ کروائیں۔
* اگر ہم طلبہ ہیں تو تعلیمی اداروں میں سیاسی شعور، مکالمہ اور یکجہتی کو مضبوط کریں۔
* اگر ہم لکھاری، دانشور یا صحافی ہیں تو اس ناانصافی کو تاریخ، سماج اور دنیا کے سامنے بے نقاب کریں۔

عوامی تحریک کی اصل طاقت عوام ہیں، اور جب عوام منظم ہو جائیں تو کوئی طاقت انہیں روک نہیں سکتی۔ یہ ہماری اجتماعی ذمہ داری ہے کہ ہم اپنے سیاسی رہنماؤں کو جیلوں میں تنہا نہ چھوڑیں، بلکہ ہر سطح پر ان کے ساتھ اپنی یکجہتی کو عملی شکل دیں۔ ہمیں ردعمل کے بجائے منظم سیاسی عمل اختیار کرنا ہوگا۔ ہمیں منتشر آوازوں کے بجائے اجتماعی آواز بننا ہوگا۔ ہمیں وقتی احتجاج کے بجائے مسلسل عوامی جدوجہد کو مضبوط کرنا ہوگا۔ یہی وہ راستہ ہے جو جبر کو بے نقاب کرتا ہے، ناانصافی کو للکارتا ہے، اور عوام کو اپنی طاقت کا احساس دلاتا ہے۔

[Baloch Yakjehti Committee @BalochYakjehtiC]

𝗦𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟 𝗠𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔 𝗖𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗔𝗜𝗚𝗡

The sentencing of Dr. Mahrang Baloch and Shah Jee Sibghatullah to life imprisonment is a grave injustice and an attack on democratic political activism, human rights advocacy, and peaceful dissent in Balochistan.

We call upon everyone to join a coordinated social media campaign to demand the release of BYC leaders, amplify their voices, and stand in solidarity with all those facing political persecution for their peaceful activism.

Join the campaign by posting on all social media platforms.

🔹 Share facts, statements, videos, and messages of solidarity.
🔹 Raise your voice against the criminalization of peaceful political activism.
🔹 Demand justice, transparency, and the release of political prisoners.
🔹 Tag journalists, human rights organizations, activists, and public representatives.
🔹 Encourage others to participate and keep the issue visible.

The strength of any movement lies in public awareness and collective action. Let us stand together and ensure that these voices are not silenced.

#IStandWithBYCLeaders
#ReleaseBYCLeaders

[Israr Baloch @IsrarBaloch77]

جس Fir میں ڈاکٹر ماہ رنگ اور شاہ جی کو Fc اہلکار کے قتل میں عمر قید سزا ہوئی وہ Fc اہلکار گوادر راجی مچی سے پہلے ہی روڈ اکسیڈنٹ میں جاں بحق ہواتھا مرگ رپورٹ کیس کا حصہ ہے۔

Fc اہلکار 27 جولائی کو جاں بحق ہوتا ہے راجی مچی 28 جولائی کو ہوتا اور Fir 29 جولائی کو درج کی جاتی ہے۔

[Sabiha Baloch @SabihaBaloch_]

Sarfraz Bugti’s statement on the life sentences awarded to Dr. Mahrang Baloch and Sibghatullah Baloch is not the voice of a government confident in justice. It is the voice of a puppet celebrating punishment.

He calls it a “two-year legal struggle.” Balochistan knows what those two years looked like. A case that was never proved through credible evidence. A process pushed forward through exclusion and coercion. A trial emptied of the accused, emptied of their chosen lawyers, emptied of the basic safeguards without which a courtroom becomes only a room where power speaks to itself.

If the Chief Minister had any regard for law, he would not be boasting today. He would be ashamed of what was done in its name.

He speaks of justice for Shabbir Baloch. But justice is not secured by forcing a verdict through a mutilated process. Justice is not produced by denying access to families and lawyers, replacing defence counsel with state-appointed lawyers, and then presenting the outcome as proof that the state was right all along. A conviction does not become credible because a minister celebrates it. A sentence does not become lawful because power claps for it.

And if the Government of Balochistan has suddenly discovered its concern for human life, then where is its concern for the four Baloch citizens killed by security forces during the Raji Muchi? Hamdan, Asghar, Hikmat and Naseer were not in uniform, so their lives are worthless yes? Where is its grief for the more than thirty people injured? Where is the fair investigation, the accountability, the courtroom, the outrage? What tells this government that one life can be used to sanctify state violence, while other lives can be thrown into silence?

The Baloch people are not insects to be crushed under the boots of officials drunk on impunity. They are not props in the state’s theatre of national security. They are citizens, families, students, workers, mothers, daughters and sons, and they have the right to ask why their dead are denied justice, why their wounded are denied truth, and why their leaders are dragged through courts designed to punish them before any judgment is written.

Dr. Mahrang Baloch and Sibghatullah Baloch have been sentenced because the state fears peaceful politics more than it fears violence. It fears the discipline of protest, the language of rights, the insistence on accountability, and the courage of people who refuse to let you forget your own so-called laws.

Sarfraz Bugti may congratulate himself today. He may call vengeance justice and call repression law. But history will not remember this verdict as justice for Shabbir Baloch. It will remember it as another document in the long record of how the state buried due process in Balochistan and expected the Baloch people to applaud at the funeral.

@arifanoor72 @cyalm @MunizaeJahangir @a_siab @Xadeejournalist @iamthedrifter @gabeeno

[Kiyya Baloch @KiyyaBaloch]

The life sentence against Mahrang Baloch is a grave blow to human rights and freedom of expression. Norsk PEN calls for respect for due process and the right to peaceful assembly.

https://t.co/4lGD4kjrkC