Meet Mahrang Baloch, young activist leading a ‘revolution’ against the Pakistani Army

A doctor turned human rights activist, Dr. Mahrang Baloch, is putting the Pakistani Army through its paces a few days before the country’s pivotal general elections. In order to draw attention to the problem of torture carried out by state forces and missing people in Balochistan, the largest of Pakistan’s four provinces, she is organizing a month-long sit-in protest. The leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee spoke at a gathering at Shahwani Stadium in Quetta on Saturday, describing the ongoing movement against the enforced disappearance and operations as “a watershed moment” and stating that a “revolution” was brewing in the troubled province, Dawn reported.

Speaking to an audience of thousands that included women, political activists, and students from various Balochistani districts, she declared, “Today’s participants have demonstrated that they are standing with their mothers and sisters in their fight for their loved ones’ recovery.” “In Islamabad, the policemen pulled the veil (chadar) from the heads of our women and also tortured them,” Baloch claimed. People in Balochistan have been raising their issues against the ‘atrocities and injustices’ committed by the state for the last 75 years, she said.

She also added that those in power were “deaf and dumb”. “They have weapons, but we dare to continue our struggle against the atrocities and injustices,” Baloch said.