They boast of a ‘strong’ army replete with an array of fighter jets, naval warships and submarines, all armed with nuclear weapons and yet they fear students carrying books, doctors with stethoscopes, writers with a pen, poets reciting poetry, advocates fighting for justice; and Baloch women with a microphone. Yes, you guessed it right, these are the Generals, Colonels and Brigadiers of the Pakistan Army! These pygmies, struggling with an inferiority complex ’cause they’ve never won a war in their lives, get anxious whenever a Baloch women speaks to the world about murder, rape, abduction and other war crimes committed by the Pakistan Army across occupied-Balochistan.
Five years ago, when GHQ Rawalpindi orchestrated the murder of Banuk Karima Baloch in Canada they had expected that with her death the Baloch voice has been silenced at the international fora. However, after Banuk Karima Baloch her legacy has been ably carried forward by Dr Mahrang Baloch, a medical professional. Dr Mahrang Baloch is articulate and boldly calls out the clown show in Pakistan and in Pakistan-occupied Balochistan. Ironically, Mahrang Baloch has always sought relief within the ambit of Pakistani regime’s constitution and laws, despite understanding that the rule of law doesn’t exist anywhere in Pakistan. Dr Mahrang Baloch’s non-confrontationist approach gave the GHQ pygmies an ego massage.
Banuk Karima was exposing them at the international forums detailing Pak Army’s kill & dump policy, their liasoning with death squads, providing statistics about enforced disappearances. Karima Baloch was silently but steadily bringing Balochistan into the international discourse and instilling a crystal clear message that Balochistan is Not Pakistan, thus making the pot-bellied Qamar Javed Bajwa (then Pak Army chief) jittery.
Karima Baloch and her assertive activism were rising with each passing day. Her forceful arguments and raw courage shook the audience in western hemisphere that had hitherto been spoon-fed fairy tales about Balochistan by the glib Pakistanis. And then boom! Karima Baloch was murdered by ISI on the night of December 21/22, 2020 in Canada. Activists and friends of Balochistan were stunned. But independence movements, revolutions and revolutionaries never die; they metamorphose. Dr Mahrang Baloch took it upon herself to step into Banuk Karima’s shoes.
During her initial activism years, Dr Mahrang Baloch campaigned for students rights, better facilities for Baloch girls in schools and colleges, filed petitions for Baloch ‘missing persons’, organised protests and sit-in; all within the ambit of law. In these initial years Baloch women, children, families of ‘forcibly disappeared’ Baloch rallied around Dr Mahrang Baloch and together they petitioned in the courts, participated in long marches, organised sit-ins, demonstrations and pleaded with the ‘establishment’.
Rawalpindi felt relieved that Dr Mahrang’s opposition was within the ‘boundary’, but their euphoria was short-lived. Unlike the polite-but-firm Karima Baloch, Dr Mahrang’s voice was shrill and forceful. Through her relentless campaign Dr Mahrang Baloch put “enforced disappearance” into international news. Dr Mahrang drilled the message loud and clear that it’s not by chance that thousands of Baloch have gone “missing” rather they have been abducted and “disappeared” by the Pakistani forces. “Enforced Disappearance” is the correct phrase, she thundered during protest rallies. International media, activists and human rights organisations began to question the Pakistani regime.
Rawalpindi pygmies became uneasy and were desperate to strike back. They knew that they would have to frame Mahrang Baloch because her protests, speeches and demands were well within the constitutional framework. The Jaffar Express hijack by the BLA sarmachaars (freedom fighters) on March 11, 2025 gave them the opening. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) routinely drubs Pakistani soldiers across Pak-occupied Balochistan and through the Jaffar Express hijack the BLA sent a message to the world that Pakistan has illegally occupied Balochistan and that the BLA sarmachars are engaged in a freedom struggle.
The newly crowned Pak Army chief (read pygmy-in-chief) Gen Asim Munir could see the narrative about Balochistan slipping away from his hands and wanted a face saver. And so, the Rawalpindi pygmies decided to arrest Dr Mahrang Baloch and other activists from the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) on March 25, 2025, slamming fictitious charges. When the fictitious charges could not stand scrutiny in the courts the Paki regime resorted to cheap trickery of extended remands. Since their arrest in March, Mahrang and other BYC activists Beebow Baloch, Gulzadi Baloch continue to be under arrest till date, under one pretext or the other.
If the Rawalpindi’s pygmy-in-chief Asim Munir feels that through these actions he can suppress Balochistan’s voice then he needs tutorials about revolutions and independence movements. “I will come back and we will be millions” read the posters during Banuk Karima Baloch’s funeral in 2020. Five years later the soft-spoken Banuk Karima Baloch has evolved into a fiery Dr Mahrang Baloch.
