Imtiaz Ali
Published October 12, 2024
Dr Mahrang Baloch (C) addresses the media at Karachi Press Club on October 8. — AFP
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Baloch rights activist Dr Mahrang Baloch was booked in a terrorism case over allegedly inciting people by levelling “allegations against security institutions”, it emerged on Saturday.
Dr Mahrang is a leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), which has organised various sit-ins and protests in the past few months over enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
On Tuesday, immigration authorities at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport had barred her from boarding a flight to New York, where she was scheduled to attend a Time magazine function.
The activist had said she was due to attend the Time magazine’s gala for being featured on the Time100Next list.
Claiming she was stopped by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Mahrang had vowed to challenge the government’s decision to impose restrictions on her foreign travel in courts.
The first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was registered by Malir district’s Quaidabad police on Friday on the complaint of a local resident named Asad Ali Shams, who claimed that Mahrang was inciting violence in his area.
The FIR invoked Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 as well as Sections 124-A (‘sedition law’), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 153-A (promotion of enmity between groups), 500 (punishment for defamation) and 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
However, in a conversation with Dawn.com, Quaidabad Station House Officer (SHO) Farasat Shah said that Mahrang and her colleagues had not held any rally or protest on Friday.
He said the complainant had an issue with the activist as he alleged she was instigating the people against the state and its institutions.
“I am 100 per cent sure that Mahrang Baloch is carrying out anti-national activities in collaboration with BLA [Baloch Liberation Army] terrorists,” the FIR quoted the complainant as saying.
The FIR alleged that Baloch was involved in activities carried out by various militant groups, naming nine such groups, including the BLA.
“The innocent men and women of Balochistan have been misled in the failed anti-state conspiracies,” it said.
Dr Mahrang termed the case “fabricated”, saying it showed “how the state has grown increasingly uncomfortable” with her activism.
“My peaceful activism will not be deterred by such illegal, unconstitutional and coercive tactics,” she said in a post on X.
“These measures are part of a systematic campaign not only to harass me but also to divert attention from the ongoing failure of security agencies to maintain law and order, therefore they keep shifting blame for their failures onto others,” she added.
Dr Mahrang said that the FIR aimed to threaten the collective struggle of the Baloch nation, adding that she would “remain determined and unafraid of these coercive actions”.
“I will fight this in a court of law,” the rights activist vowed.
Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday, she had alleged that she and her female companions were harassed by law enforcement agencies on their way back from the airport.
Accompanied by rights activists Wahab Baloch, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan vice chairperson Qazi Khizar and Sammi Deen — who was also stopped from exiting the country by the FIA last month — Mahrang had said that she was barred from travelling abroad without any legal reason despite having a valid US visa and an invitation from Time.
Dr Mahrang Baloch (C) addresses the media at Karachi Press Club on October 8. — AFPListen to article1x1.2x1.5x
Join our Whatsapp channelBaloch rights activist Dr Mahrang Baloch was booked in a terrorism case over allegedly inciting people by levelling “allegations against security institutions”, it emerged on Saturday.
Dr Mahrang is a leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), which has organised various sit-ins and protests in the past few months over enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
On Tuesday, immigration authorities at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport had barred her from boarding a flight to New York, where she was scheduled to attend a Time magazine function.
The activist had said she was due to attend the Time magazine’s gala for being featured on the Time100Next list.
Claiming she was stopped by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Mahrang had vowed to challenge the government’s decision to impose restrictions on her foreign travel in courts.
The first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was registered by Malir district’s Quaidabad police on Friday on the complaint of a local resident named Asad Ali Shams, who claimed that Mahrang was inciting violence in his area.
The FIR invoked Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 as well as Sections 124-A (‘sedition law’), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 153-A (promotion of enmity between groups), 500 (punishment for defamation) and 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
However, in a conversation with Dawn.com, Quaidabad Station House Officer (SHO) Farasat Shah said that Mahrang and her colleagues had not held any rally or protest on Friday.
He said the complainant had an issue with the activist as he alleged she was instigating the people against the state and its institutions.
“I am 100 per cent sure that Mahrang Baloch is carrying out anti-national activities in collaboration with BLA [Baloch Liberation Army] terrorists,” the FIR quoted the complainant as saying.
The FIR alleged that Baloch was involved in activities carried out by various militant groups, naming nine such groups, including the BLA.
“The innocent men and women of Balochistan have been misled in the failed anti-state conspiracies,” it said.
Dr Mahrang termed the case “fabricated”, saying it showed “how the state has grown increasingly uncomfortable” with her activism.
“My peaceful activism will not be deterred by such illegal, unconstitutional and coercive tactics,” she said in a post on X.
“These measures are part of a systematic campaign not only to harass me but also to divert attention from the ongoing failure of security agencies to maintain law and order, therefore they keep shifting blame for their failures onto others,” she added.
Dr Mahrang said that the FIR aimed to threaten the collective struggle of the Baloch nation, adding that she would “remain determined and unafraid of these coercive actions”.
“I will fight this in a court of law,” the rights activist vowed.
Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday, she had alleged that she and her female companions were harassed by law enforcement agencies on their way back from the airport.
Accompanied by rights activists Wahab Baloch, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan vice chairperson Qazi Khizar and Sammi Deen — who was also stopped from exiting the country by the FIA last month — Mahrang had said that she was barred from travelling abroad without any legal reason despite having a valid US visa and an invitation from Time.
Dr Mahrang Baloch named one of Time’s most influential people of 2024
Published October 2, 2024
Dr Mahrang Baloch pictured at a BYC gathering in Turbat. — Dawn/File
Dr Mahrang Baloch, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee leader, has been featured in Time magazine’s ‘2024 Time100 Next’ list for “advocating peacefully for Baloch rights”, the magazine said on Wednesday.
The list showcases 100 young individuals “who are not waiting long in life to make an impact” and includes artists, athletes, and advocates. The magazine says the list aims “to recognise that influence does not have [requirements] … nor does leadership look like it once did”.
The magazine selected Dr Mahrang for her peaceful advocacy as well as her December 2023 march to Islamabad, where she and hundreds of women marched for “justice for their husbands, sons, and brothers”.
“I am deeply honoured and delighted to be named among the top 100 emerging leaders of the world by TIME,” she wrote in a Facebook post after receiving the recognition.
“I dedicate this recognition to all Baloch women human rights defenders and families of victims of forcefully disappeared people.”
Dr Mahrang was suddenly pushed into the limelight when she began to spearhead protests after her father, Ghaffar Longove, went missing in December 2009 from outside a hospital in Karachi.
At the time, she was still a student in primary school. The eldest of six siblings, Mahrang would burn her school books in front of the Quetta Press Club in an act of protest, demanding that her father be returned home. Her father’s mutilated body was found in 2011.
In December 2023, Dr Mahrang was one of the organisers of a large march and sit-in in Islamabad to protest enforced disappearances.
According to a report released in July, a total of 197 missing persons cases were reported in the first half of 2024 alone, with a vast majority recorded in Balochistan.
Other notable inclusions on the list were Bangladesh student leader Nahid Islam and Gazan food blogger Hamada Shaqoura.
Islam spearheaded student protests in Bangladesh over the summer, which culminated in the ouster and exile of former premier Sheikh Hasina. He is currently serving as a minister in the interim government led by Dr Muhammad Yunus.
Shaqoura, who owned a restaurant in Gaza before the conflict broke out in October, has found a platform as a “wartime food blogger”, the magazine said, adding that he cultivates recipes from ingredients found in aid packages and shares videos cooking and distributing meals in the enclave.
While saying that he was honoured by the inclusion, he said he did not “particularly feel like celebrating, in a time when me, my Palestinian people & Lebanese brothers and sisters are still facing death 24/7.
“But I’ll take the moment to emphasise to the whole world, that we —Palestinians — are here, and will always be!”
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