(March 26, 2025) - Hindus for Human Rights calls on Pakistani authorities to immediately release Baloch human rights activists and members of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), including Dr. Mahrang Baloch, Bebarg Zehri, and Sammi Deen Baloch. We also echo the BYC and other Baloch human rights defenders’ calls to respect the basic human rights of the Baloch people, including but not limited to the freedom of assembly, and to give the people of Balochistan answers about their many loved ones who have been forcibly disappeared over the years. Finally, we urge an independent investigation into the use of deadly violence against protesters in Balochistan on March 21, 2025.
Since March 11, 2025, when militants attacked a train in Pakistan, authorities have used the aftermath to suppress Baloch civil society and human rights defenders. On March 19, 2025, authorities arrested human rights defender Saeeda Baloch and released her 48 hours later. In the early hours of March 20, authorities arrested activist Bebarg Zehri and his brother, alongside other Baloch human rights defenders. In response, Baloch protesters staged a protest to demand the release of several Baloch activists. Police violently cracked down on the protest, killing 3 people and arresting hundreds. The next day, Dr. Baloch and members of the BYC staged a peaceful sit-in at the University of Balochistan. Around 5 am the next day, police arrested Dr. Baloch and 17 other BYC members, including her sister. In response to the continued suppression of Baloch human rights activists, Sammi Deen Baloch led a protest in Karachi. Sammi Baloch was then arrested on March 24, 2025.
Zehri was detained by the Counter Terrorism Division, and it is widely believed that he has been disappeared by Pakistani authorities. Dr. Baloch is currently being held at Quetta District Jail on charges of sedition and terrorism. Under the guise of national security, Pakistani authorities are trying to crush one of Pakistan’s largest human rights movements and silence some of its most prominent voices. Dr. Baloch, in particular, has become a global figure - a Nobel peace prize nominee and a Time 100 awardee. She has been internationally recognized for the fearless advocacy of the BYC to demand the release of forcibly disappeared people in Balochistan. She led the Baloch Long March in December 2023 from Quetta to Islamabad. Dr. Baloch, Zehri, and the hundreds of Baloch protesters arrested over the past few days are part of a long line of human rights defenders who have stood up to a state that labels their fight for dignity, recognition, and self-determination a threat to Pakistan’s security.
HfHR stands with all the human rights defenders in Balochistan against the suppression of the Pakistani security establishment. We echo the global outrage and calls to release all Baloch human rights activists and to end the long, deadly cycle of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and extrajudicial killing in Balochistan.
