‘Will Face Oppression With Courage’: Jailed Activist Mahrang Baloch Writes Letter from Prison

ISLAMABAD: The chairperson of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), Dr. Mahrang Baloch, who was arrested last month during a protest in Quetta, wrote a letter to the people of Balochistan, denouncing the “propaganda” against her and other arrested activists.

In the letter shared by the BYC, she stated that she and other arrested activists are being deliberately kept in the dark about the situation in Balochistan, as they are given newspapers that are two days old.

“The state and its so-called democratic institutions are propagating against us with the state’s false narrative,” she wrote.

Baloch recently gained international recognition after leading a series of protests against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Pakistan’s volatile Balochistan province.

She mentioned in the letter that the jail in which she is being held is the same prison where her father, who was extrajudicially killed in 2011, spent three years in imprisonment. “I am grateful to the state for choosing Hudda Jail for my detention. This place was the center of my suffering.”

“I wished I could live in the solitary confinement where my father spent three years of his imprisonment,” Baloch wrote.

“It has been my life’s desire to go to the place where my father was kept and where he was tortured. I wanted to experience that last moment, which was his last moment,” she added.

The activist stated that the movement she is leading is aimed at “rebuilding” homes that were destroyed by the state.

Baloch further said that the state is conducting propaganda against them with the help of “intellectuals and journalists,” adding, “We will face every oppression and lie of the state with courage, determination, and organized struggle.”

“The state that is throwing down bodies is facing a courageous nation,” she added.

Last Friday, the nationalist Balochistan National Party (BNP) began a “long march” from Wadh to Quetta to protest the detentions of BYC leaders and activists, including Mahrang Baloch and Sammi Deen Baloch, as well as the police’s response to their sit-in in Quetta.

Sammi Deen Baloch was released on Tuesday.

On Thursday in Mastung, party leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal presented three demands during the protest.

“Either release all BYC prisoners, including women, or allow us to peacefully march to Quetta for a sit-in. If not, then arrest us,” Mengal stated.

News Desk

ISLAMABAD: The chairperson of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), Dr. Mahrang Baloch, who was arrested last month during a protest in Quetta, wrote a letter to the people of Balochistan, denouncing the “propaganda” against her and other arrested activists.

In the letter shared by the BYC, she stated that she and other arrested activists are being deliberately kept in the dark about the situation in Balochistan, as they are given newspapers that are two days old.

“The state and its so-called democratic institutions are propagating against us with the state’s false narrative,” she wrote.

Baloch recently gained international recognition after leading a series of protests against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Pakistan’s volatile Balochistan province.

She mentioned in the letter that the jail in which she is being held is the same prison where her father, who was extrajudicially killed in 2011, spent three years in imprisonment. “I am grateful to the state for choosing Hudda Jail for my detention. This place was the center of my suffering.”

“I wished I could live in the solitary confinement where my father spent three years of his imprisonment,” Baloch wrote.

“It has been my life’s desire to go to the place where my father was kept and where he was tortured. I wanted to experience that last moment, which was his last moment,” she added.

The activist stated that the movement she is leading is aimed at “rebuilding” homes that were destroyed by the state.

Baloch further said that the state is conducting propaganda against them with the help of “intellectuals and journalists,” adding, “We will face every oppression and lie of the state with courage, determination, and organized struggle.”

“The state that is throwing down bodies is facing a courageous nation,” she added.

Last Friday, the nationalist Balochistan National Party (BNP) began a “long march” from Wadh to Quetta to protest the detentions of BYC leaders and activists, including Mahrang Baloch and Sammi Deen Baloch, as well as the police’s response to their sit-in in Quetta.

Sammi Deen Baloch was released on Tuesday.

On Thursday in Mastung, party leader Sardar Akhtar Mengal presented three demands during the protest.

“Either release all BYC prisoners, including women, or allow us to peacefully march to Quetta for a sit-in. If not, then arrest us,” Mengal stated.

News Desk