How Mahrang Baloch, the Baloch lioness, is challenging the Pakistani establishment

Tens of thousands of people flocked to Quetta’s Balochistan University to greet the leaders and participants of the Turbat long march, which had just returned from Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad. Electricity was about to take over the air.

The majority of those present at the January 25 event were young students, the elderly, and kids. Awaiting a master orator.

There were cameras and unmanned aerial vehicles everywhere to document the ‘jalsa,’ or what was called a ‘public referendum.”

Mahrang Baloch, the “lioness of Balochistan,” then rose to the platform to speak to the throng of people who had gathered to hear her.

“Today, the love and respect we have among our people in our land are a thousand times more powerful than the oppression of Islamabad,” she told those in attendance.

Thousands of those there yelled in unison as she lifted a slogan.

Balochis following a female commander is an uncommon sight. Mahrang Baloch is unique, however.

TURBAT MARCH SAW BRUTALITY FROM PAKISTAN POLICE
Baloch Mahrang, accompanied by a few women, kids, and elderly individuals, had just arrived back from Islamabad after years of protesting against the extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances of Baloch people in Balochistan.

The Baloch Yakjehti Committee was the umbrella organization for the demonstrations (BYC). Mahrang is BYC’s public face.

On December 21, the demonstrators traveled 1,600 kilometers on foot from Turbat, the second-largest city in Balochistan, to the nation’s capital. Up north, in the bitter cold, they faced a severe crackdown by the Islamabad Police.

Amnesty International claims that at least 13 criminal proceedings were brought against demonstrators around Pakistan.

When they arrived, at least 200 individuals had been detained.

Things have heated up in Pakistan as well since the Islamic Republic is preparing for elections to the National Assembly (parliamentary) in less than two weeks.

WHAT IS THE BALOCHISTAN REBELLION FLAG?
The long history of discrimination and exploitation of Balochistan by the Islamabad-Rawalpindi rule is at the core of the demonstrations.

Consistently marginalized by Islamabad, Balochistan has experienced ongoing hardship. The Baloch people have endured kidnappings and enforced disappearances by security forces for decades.

Mahrang Baloch initiated the’march beyond silence’ for this purpose.

Is there anything left except ‘Resistance’ and a movement opposing the state’s genocidal and ruthless policies? Mahrang Baloch commented on X, “This is a people’s resistance, and only the people themselves can resist to end such barbaric policies.”

Balochistan, the biggest province in Pakistan, has an abundance of natural resources, but little to no genuine development has occurred there in recent years, which has worsened socioeconomic metrics. The region borders Iran.

Approximately 41% of families in this economically disadvantaged Pakistani province live below the poverty line. The province trails behind in a number of socioeconomic metrics.

As a result, some Baloch people in Pakistan who are unhappy have taken up guns, while others have chosen to remain silent and suffer more marginalization and injustice at the hands of the authorities.

Mahrang Baloch, a youthful, brave, and introspective leader, is leading the Baloch movement, which has persevered for decades in a variety of methods.

HOW THE KILLING OF A 24-YEAR-OLD TRIGGRED PROTESTS
Balochis seldom support female leaders, but Mahrang is an exception.

Mahrang Baloch, a fiery orator and skilled surgeon, has come to represent resistance against the abuses the Pakistani establishment and government have inflicted on the Baloch people.

The Counter-Terrorism Department’s (CTD) unlawful death of 24-year-old Baloch man Balaach Mola Bakhsh served as the impetus for the most recent demonstrations and the march from Turbat to Islamabad.

Locals and activists claim that the state uses death squads to carry out kidnappings and extrajudicial executions.

Amnesty International reports that since 2011, there have been at least 2,752 enforced disappearances in the province of Balochistan.

Balochstanis on X have accused local Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) officials of helping the “death squads of Balochistan” carry out covert kidnappings and murders. One of Pakistan’s major political parties is the PPP.

As Mahrang Bachach lifted her veil,
Mahrang has been kidnapped violently herself.

According to the South Asian Avant-Garde, her father was apprehended by security services in Karachi in 2009, and his death wasn’t found until a few years later. There were obvious marks of torture on the corpse.

In 2017, Mahrang Baloch’s brother was also kidnapped.

That’s when I made the decision to protest on behalf of everyone. And I took off my veil and revealed my face to everyone,” Mahrang Baloch said in a 2021 interview with the Guardian.

Mahrang has been speaking out against extrajudicial executions, forced relocations of the Baloch people, and illegal enforced disappearances ever since.

Mahrang Baloch has spoken her opposition to her own people as well. She is regarded as a fervent advocate for the right to free speech and has shown support for marginalized communities in Pakistan, such as the Hazara, Sindhi, Muhajir, Pashtun, Shia, Hindu, and Christian communities.

Media in Pakistan Ignores Baloch Struggles
Nevertheless, there was little to no coverage of the most recent demonstrations in Pakistan—especially not in the country’s media. When they did get coverage in Pakistani media, the narratives did not adequately represent the Baloch people’s much larger cause.

The majority of the news were focused on the police crackdown on the demonstrators and disturbances to public order.

“It is your journalistic duty to concentrate on the problems of the people,” the demonstration organizers, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), told the press.

“We request national and international media to cover the National Grand Gathering of the Baloch Nation, to listen to and highlight the gross human rights abuses happening throughout Balochistan,” stated a BYC’s post on X.

According to The Balochistan Post, US Congressman Brad Sherman voiced his worry on January 27 on the problem of forced disappearances in Sindh and Balochistan.

“Today, fearless women from Balochistan are holding a peace demonstration in Quetta to call for a stop to the state and military of Pakistan’s violations of human rights, such as extrajudicial murders, mass graves, and disappearances. A Labour MP in the British Parliament named John McDonnell posted on X, “I’m urging the UK to press Pakistan to ensure the safety of protestors.”

The demonstration in front of Balochistan University in Quetta, headed by Mahrang Baloch, made clear what the Balochis desired.

In response to the footage of the large-scale assembly in Quetta, Mahrang Baloch commented on X, “Today it is not just a public meeting, it is not just a gathering, but it is a public referendum, it is the decision of the Baloch nation, it is the decision of the court of the Baloch people.”

“With this passion, consciousness and strength, we will wipe out the last traces of this system of oppression from our land,” she said.

Thousands of people cheering Mahrang’s arrival chanted an emphatic no to the conceited, haughty Pakistani elite. In Balochistan, the current state of affairs cannot last, and Mahrang Baloch is striving to overthrow that cruel regime.