Dr. Mahrang Baloch, a prominent human rights defender and key figure in the struggle for the fundamental rights of the Baloch people in Pakistan, has been sentenced to life imprisonment following her arrest during a peaceful protest in March 2025.
Dr. Baloch is a leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) and has long led campaigns against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of Baloch people by Pakistani security forces. She was a central organiser of the Baloch Long March in November 2023 – where hundreds of women marched about a thousand miles to protest the extrajudicial killing of young Baloch men – and the Baloch National Gathering in Gwadar in July 2024. She is widely recognised for her human rights work, and was a 2025 Nobel Peace Prize nominee in the period immediately preceding her arrest.
Dr. Baloch was arrested on 23 March 2025 as part of a broader wave of arrests against BYC leaders and members. Many have criticised the arrests as politically motivated and as a mechanism through which Pakistani authorities have reinforced a growing pattern of state repression against nonviolent resistance. UN human rights experts have demanded the release of Dr. Baloch and other detained BYC leaders and human rights defenders, expressing serious alarm at the detention of individuals for merely exercising their right to peaceful assembly.
Alongside concerns about the detention itself, UNPO and other human rights organisations have highlighted the worrying pattern of abuse of counter-terrorism measures by Pakistani authorities to silence peaceful dissent. Dr. Baloch was arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), and on 22 June 2026, the Anti-Terrorism Court sentenced her, alongside fellow BYC member Sibghatullah Shahji, to life imprisonment for terrorism, sedition, and murder in connection with the death of a security officer during the Baloch National Gathering in Gwadar in 2024. The trial was conducted inside Hudda Jail, raising serious concerns regarding due process guarantees. Both defenders have consistently denied the alleged charges.
In response to the sentencing, Baloch human rights activists and community leaders called a strike in protest. Businesses were closed and peaceful demonstrations were held across the province, however the local administration deployed heavy security across affected areas.
UNPO stands firmly with the people of Balochistan and calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Mahrang Baloch, Sibghatullah Shahji, and all BYC leaders and members detained in connection with their peaceful advocacy work. This call is echoed by UNPO’s member communities across Pakistan, including the Sindhi people, who know firsthand the cost of peaceful resistance against state repression and stand in solidarity with the Baloch people in their struggle for justice. UNPO further urges Pakistani authorities to cease the use of counter-terrorism legislation to criminalise peaceful dissent, and to recognise the right of the Baloch people, and all unrepresented peoples within Pakistan, to self-determination and equal political representation, in accordance with Pakistan’s obligations under international human rights law.
