Mahrang Baloch is a 32-year-old ethnic Baloch woman, a surgeon by profession and a human rights activist, now behind bars and on trial in Pakistan for her peaceful activism.
Today, our peer Dr. Baloch is behind bars . Six months have passed since her arrest.
Photo credit: Nadia Baloch
On 22 March 2025, she was detained under the colonial-era Maintenance of Public Order (3MPO) law, alongside fellow activist Beebow Baloch. Other Baloch Yekjehti Committee (BYC) leaders, including Bebarg Zehri, Shah Jee Sibghat Ullah, and Gulzadi Baloch, were also targeted before and after her arrest. To date, Dr. Baloch and her fellow activists remain in custody.
The Baloch Yekjehti Committee (BYC), led by Dr. Baloch, is a civil rights movement advocating for the rights of the Baloch people, an ethnic minority in Pakistan’s resource-rich province of Balochistan.
She is prosecuted because she dared to demand justice for her people.
For years, Dr. Baloch spoke out against enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and misuse of anti-terrorism laws in Balochistan. She organized peaceful marches and sit-ins in Quetta, Gwadar, Dalbandin, and Islamabad. For her peaceful activism, she has been placed under travel restrictions, remains on Pakistan's anti-terrorism watch list, and faces over 40 fabricated charges, including terrorism and murder. She is now jailed solely for advocating for human rights.
Though she is behind bars, her voice echoes across borders.
Her nonviolent struggle led to recognition by TIME Magazine’s 100 emerging leaders, BBC 100 Women, and a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in 2025. Yet she remains behind bars instead of addressing the world.
In her own words, written from prison in TIME magazine in June:
“Since my arrest, Pakistan's state security 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.”
She continued:
“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 in a deeply personal reflection, she wrote to PEN Norway:
“As I sit in this dark cell, surrounded by towering walls, I remind myself that this is a small price to pay for speaking the truth and standing up to authoritarianism. I also read in schoolbooks in childhood; truth comes at a cost. Now I am living it. But I do not forget true strength is not measured in chains or walls; it’s mental, moral, and ideological. And my ideology shines brighter than this dark prison cell and rises higher than these thick prison walls.”
Now, she is incarcerated, yet her courage fills the space.
The international community has spoken clearly.
Amnesty International said:
“Pakistani authorities must immediately release all Baloch activists being detained simply for exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly … the detention of Baloch activists violates Pakistan’s international human rights commitments.”
UN experts warned:
“We are extremely concerned for the welfare of Dr. Mahrang Baloch … Pakistani authorities’ response relies on arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and violent crackdowns on freedom of assembly, despite the protests being peaceful.”
PEN International wrote:
“In the time since, Mahrang has been subjected to repeated due process violations, denying her ability to establish her innocence. Her initial detention without trial under the MPO, which is ordinarily limited to three months before being referred to a review board, has been extended on four separate occasions without referral.”
Despite these appeals, Dr. Baloch remains in prison, now six months without a fair trial.
We join the voices of Amnesty, UN experts, PEN International, Frontline Defenders, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, Narges Mohammadi, and many others in demanding justice for her.
We call for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Mahrang Baloch and all detained Baloch rights activists in Pakistan.
Until she is free, her prosecution serves as a reminder that silencing truth-tellers does not erase their cause, but it only intensifies its strength.
Dr Baloch in a note to Tomorrow Club wrote:
“I am not the first person to be detained, nor will I be the last. I have not been imprisoned for committing a crime, but for speaking the truth. And I thank all those, including Tomorrow, who are standing with the truth today.”
For More Information and Actions Contact:
Kiyya Baloch
Freelance Journalist, Researcher and Communication Officer at PEN Norway. He reports on the insurgency, politics, militancy, and sectarian violence in Balochistan and has written for the Guardian, Economist, Al Jazeera among others.
E-mail: [email protected]
