On the 27th day of the Baloch Long March, which began in Turbat and reached Islamabad, Pakistan police launched a brutal crackdown. Peaceful protestors and activists were beaten, water-gassed, and subjected to baton attacks in an attempt to disrupt the march. Numerous arrests were made by the authorities, leaving many demonstrators injured and requiring urgent medical attention. Meanwhile, Baloch march leader Mahrang Baloch has made an appeal for the mass support.
Children and women too were thrashed and handled inappropriately, citing the gravity of the situation, brave leader of the march, Mahrang Baloch, said” its been over 24hours and they are kept illegally in the police station. And now, that they are got bail and free to go, they are not allowed to leave as per their wish.” After bail, these women are free to go on their own, but Pak Army has deployed their fascist forces outside. They are planning to captured them in the buses and send them back to Quetta.
Mahrang appeals to the masses, to join the march and movement and stand up against the brutal Pak Army and the ongoing Baloch genocide. Accordingly, she said that the men abducted by the forces have been disappeared as well. They are in Islamabad protesting and taking for answers, seeking justice. But none of the organisation and people in power have attempted to reach out to them. The march began in response to the extrajudicial killing of Balach Mola Bakhsh by the Pak Army, sparking concerns about enforced disappearances and human rights abuses in Pak-occupied-Balochistan.
The protests and sit-ins arose from both a demand for justice for Baloch victims and a call for action against the perpetrators within the CTD, which has become a tool for the Army’s raids, abductions, and indiscriminate extrajudicial killings. Frustrated by the lack of progress, the Baloch Yakjahti Committee initiated the long march.