“I Will Get Killed” : Mahrang Baloch
Imagine you’re a young female human rights activist, and Time Magazine recognizes you as one of today’s most influential leaders, but when you try to board a plane to attend the awards ceremony in New York, you’re told by immigration authorities in your country that you are not allowed to travel there. That’s what happened to Dr Mahrang Baloch, who is included in the Time magazine next 100 list of 2024.
Who Is Mahrang Baloch?
Mahrang Baloch is a human rights activist advocating for the rights of the Baloch community in Pakistan. Last December she led a march in Islamabad to protest the killings of Pakistan’s Baloch minority, which included her father, a prominent activist who was abducted in 2009 and sadly found dead two years later. The March made waves in bringing attention to the Baloch struggle and surely caught the attention of the Pakistani government. Mahrang is a medical doctor, completing her M.B.B.S from Bolan medical College. She is an active Human Rights activist and has been seen protesting against missing persons and extra-judicial killings of the Baloch since her teenage years. Her father and many other members of the Baloch community have suffered a lot through the years. Her voice has now reached international forums, and she makes headlines nationally. The struggle story is now being highlighted across the globe, making her more popular and one of the true influencers of Pakistan.
When Mahrang arrived at the airport to fly to the United States to attend the Time Magazine ceremony in New York, she was prevented from traveling without any basis or explanation because there was no legitimate purpose to prevent her travel. According to her, Pakistani authorities want to silence the Baloch voice internationally to conceal the two decades-long genocide and the human rights violations back in Balochistan.
At immigration, they took her passport without any explanation and made her wait at the airport for more than five hours. When she asked them that why she had been prevented from taking the flight, they gave her a bogus explanation that her Visa is not valid. Although she had a five-year visa and was invited by Time Magazine itself, She was given such a stupid explanation by the authorities. In charge of the Airport security disappeared from the scene and Pakistani authorities once again embarrassed themselves by trying to suppress another voice, which they have been doing since decades.
” I Will Get Killed”
In her recent interview with the international media, Mahrang spoke fearlessly and even gave a hint about her being assassinated in the near future.
“I represent a cause, the Baloch National Cause, so they prevented me from boarding the plane, so I could not reach New York, and also if I did reach New York, I would expose their war crimes in Balochistan and what their army is doing every day in Balochistan. They are abducting innocent people and not confined to Balochistan but also in the Punjab Province, like last night when three students were abducted from their hostel in Lahore. It became a norm in Baluchistan to get abducted even though to get mutilated and receive your beloved ones bodies in return and from the state forces. It makes me very depressed when we leave our home and when we see our mother, we say that we don’t know when we will return or not, like all the human rights defenders, those who dare to speak against the state atrocities their own lives and also their family lives are in danger, so I know at a point in my life I WILL GET KILLED.
My message is very clear do not turn blind eye to the sufferings and oppression in Balochistan, for years our people have suffered Illegal disappearances, extra judicial killings and human rights violation and the US is the biggest Ally supporting Pakistan in many things also in counterterrorism but the aid they give to end counterterrorism is used to suppress Baloch masses, our voices have been silenced by a powerful military state that controls the narrative, and we are not giving up we are fighting for justice and that our issue of Balochistan is being concealed for decades because of what’s happening in Afghanistan and what’s happening you know in the borders of Balochistan and now the world is more focused on Gaza situation and Ukraine yes but yes, you cannot stay blind eye on Balochistan because our situation is getting worse day by day.”
Is Mahrang an American agent?
From Fatima Jinnah to Mahrang in recent times, Pakistanis have an obsession of declaring every popular activist or leader as an American agent. It has become a norm in Pakistan to label every activist getting popular as an agent working on foreign agenda and turn blind eye to state’s own atrocities. In recent times, nationalism in Pakistan has gained momentum, with nationalist leaders like Manzoor Pashteen and Mahrang Baloch, amongst others, gaining popularity. To answer about who is American agent? The state itself is an ally to the US, and it is no secret now that the Pakistani establishment itself is a loyal US agent. Anyone gaining popularity against their wishes is always loyal to Pakistan. So the narrative of declaring everyone as a US agent shall be buried because the state of Pakistan itself is functioning as one, so the voice of nationalists and grievances of the activists shall be heard and solved rather than to undermine them more by declaring them as enemies or agents working on the foreign propaganda.