Pakistan: Baloch activist condemns state violence on protesters

Balochistan [Pakistan], March 2 (ANI): Prominent Baloch Activist, Mahrang Baloch, voiced her condemnation against the brutality exerted on her community by the state troops.
"The entire Balochistan is currently protesting against the extreme severity of the Baloch genocide and state repression," she said.

بلوچ نسل کشی میں انتہائی شدت اور ریاستی جبر کے خلاف اس وقت پورا بلوچستان سراپا احتجاج ہے۔

صرف اس سال کے ابتدائی دو مہینوں میں تقریباً دو سو بلوچوں کو جبری طور پر لاپتہ کیا گیا اور درجنوں بلوچوں کو ماورائے عدالت قتل کیا گیا ہے۔ محض ان دو مہینوں میں جبری گمشدگی اور ماورائے عدالت… pic.twitter.com/3WzEQ04Yzk

— Mahrang Baloch (@MahrangBaloch_) March 1, 2025

In the first two months of this year alone, nearly two hundred Baloch people have been forcibly disappeared and dozens of Baloch people have been extrajudicially killed. In these two months alone, hundreds of protests, rallies and sit-ins have been held in Balochistan against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, Mahrang's statement read.

Relatives of missing persons are currently holding sit-ins at four locations in Balochistan, major highways are completely closed, and the entire province is in a state of protest. Every road, every area, every village--people affected by state repression are in a state of protest in the form of sit-ins and protests, her statement said further.
"In Balochistan, the state and the state system have truly failed. In the last two months alone, the people affected by state oppression have taken to the streets dozens of times and completely blocked all the highways of Balochistan in protest, thus cutting off Balochistan's land connection with other regions and expressing their disgust with the state system," her statement read.

The relatives of the victims of state oppression are aware of the suffering caused to the common people by the closure of the roads, but they have tried their struggle in every possible way, including the court, the constitution and the press club, but have not achieved anything except disappointment and further oppression from everywhere. Now, the only way left for them is to paralyze the state system against this system of oppression, her statement added.
The relatives of those affected by state oppression have no desire to leave their homes in the bitter cold and rain and lie helpless on the streets, but rather, the state's atrocities and oppression have forced them to do so. Instead of blaming the relatives of those affected by state oppression, everyone should stand by their side in their struggle.
The popular resistance in Balochistan has intensified, and the people are continuously protesting against the worst atrocities of the state from Quetta to Hub Chowki and from Sorab to Turbat. But instead of reducing its oppression and brutality and ending the Baloch genocide, the state is threatening the oppressed people more. The affected people who are protesting are being threatened with serious consequences and are being harassed, her statement added.
"The state is unable to understand that the Baloch people are now completely fed up with state oppression and atrocities, and as a result of continuous atrocities, fear has disappeared from the hearts of the people. Now, threats and harassment cannot silence them; rather, these threats and use of force will provide more energy to the people's resistance. Instead of bowing down to state oppression, the Baloch people have made their suffering their strength," she stated.
"Instead of threatening the people, the state should stop the Baloch genocide," she concluded.
Balochistan - Pakistan's largest but least populous province - has a long history of marginalisation. The province was annexed by Pakistan in 1948, soon after its partition from India, and there has been a separatist movement since, as per Al Jazeera.
In a 2016 report, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances said their sources in Balochistan allege more than 14,000 people were missing there, but the provincial government recognised less than 100, as per Al Jazeera. (ANI)