About the Author(s)
Author is an undergraduate student of BS International Relations, in GC University Lahore. She has outstanding writing skills and vast knowledge of the world.
Mahrang was born in 1993 into a Baloch family. Her father Abdul Gaffar Langove was a laborer. Her family lived in Quetta before relocating to Karachi for her mother’s medical care Mahrang Baloch brave women of Baloch nation. Mahrang Baloch Organizer of Baloch Yakjehti Committee is a human rights activist who stood against the abduction, disappearances and unlawful killing of Baloch people by the authorities in Balochistan.
Her Sufferings:
While traveling to the hospital in Karachi on December 12, 2009, her father was kidnapped by security authorities in Pakistan. She became well-known in the student resistance movement at the age of sixteen when she began opposing his kidnapping right away. Her father was discovered deceased in July 2011 with obvious evidence of torture.
Later, in December 2017, her brother was kidnapped by ISI and held captive for more than three months. She now stands as the pillar for the Baloch endurance movement. She has objected to the government’s exploitation of Balochistan natural resources. She organized a group of students to oppose the proposed elimination of Bolan Medical College’s quota system in 2020. The system reserves spaces for medical students from the province’s more rural areas. The group’s advocacy and hunger strikes led to the cancellation of the proposed policy change.
A new chapter in the Baloch battle for justice and accountability in Pakistan began on November 23, 2023. On that day, Balach Mola Bakhsh, a 24-year-old Baloch man who had been kidnapped in October, was allegedly “killed in an encounter” with security forces in Turbat, Balochistan, according to the country’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD). His family realized this could not be true because, only two days prior, Bakhsh had been accused of possessing five kilograms of explosives in a “anti-terrorism” court by the same department. When he was killed, he was under state custody.
In one of her interviews she protested and claimed We the Baloch people have been struggling and fighting for decades, protested in Quetta and Islamabad but, nobody cared, our cries and protests remained unheard and our appeal for help once again fell on deaf ears. Dr Mahrung claims that the Baloch people never broke any national or regional law while protesting but the police forces used harsh ways to stop.
The Baloch long march has witnessed the arrest of a long list of people in different cities such as Dera Ghazi Khan. When Baloch people under the leadership of Dr Mahrung Baloch started asking for their basic human rights, a large number of Balochs were accused of sedition. The motto of Baloch yakjehti march is to ensure the rule of law in their country, that should be the core value of any country’s authorities.
‘The state claims that we are against it but, it’s the state that is against us’
Says Dr Mahrung:
The Baloch Long March Against Baloch Genocide is the protest and endurance movement led by Mahrang Baloch and other Baloch people, to ask and appeal for basic human rights violations and abductions in Balochistan. The march was a protest and appeal to the growing number of enforced abductions and innocent killings in the region.
The Baloch March against Baloch Genocide was initiated by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a non-profit organization spearheaded by Mahrang Baloch and other prominent figures. This March, an International Oppressed People Conference was conducted by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC). The BYC also released its first publication, “Marching Beyond Silence, unveiling the courageous struggle against the Baloch Genocide.” In Quetta, Baluchistan’s capital, a sizable public assembly took place amid the march’s fifth phase. The BYC introduced the Baloch Genocide insignia and proclaimed January 25th to be the Day of Baloch Genocide during this occasion.
A major organizer of the Baloch Long March, which called for an end to atrocities such as forced disappearances and assassinations, Dr. Mahrang Baloch was inspired by the extrajudicial death of a young Baloch man in Turbut, Baluchistan. Authorities retaliated violently against Dr. Mahrang Baloch and other nonviolent protestors.
Dr. Mahrang Baloch, the leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, spoke to a sizable public assembly on Saturday, four days after concluding her protest camp in Islamabad, declaring that a “revolution” was taking place in Baluchistan. During her speech at Quetta’s Shahwani Stadium, Dr. Baloch referred to the current campaign against forced disappearance and operations as “a watershed moment”. Thousands of people from all throughout the province, including women, political activists, and students, attended the event. She remarked, “Today’s participants have demonstrated that they stand with their mothers and sisters in their fight for their loved ones’ recovery.”The protestor went on to say that Baluchistan citizens had been speaking out against the “atrocities and injustices” carried out by the government for the past 75 years. She criticized the administration and called those in positions of authority “deaf and dumb” for not listening to the people.
Dr’s protest is and was “for the survival of Baluchistan”, and she will continue to defend it. Dr Baloch said during the protest in Islamabad, the elderly women only requested for their loved ones to be presented before courts, but the Constitution of Pakistan failed to deliver them justice.
