QUETTA , BALOCHISTAN: A senior leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), Dr. Sabiha Baloch, has issued a statement saluting international voices that spoke out against the life imprisonment sentences handed to BYC leaders, while warning that the struggle for justice in Balochistan is far from over.
“Every voice that rises against silence deserves salute. But it must be remembered this is a beginning, not an end,” Dr. Sabiha said in a video message.
Her remarks came days after an anti-terrorism court in Quetta sentenced BYC chief organiser Dr. Mahrang Baloch and fellow leader Sibghatullah Baloch to life imprisonment.
The BYC leader acknowledged and praised the journalists, human rights workers, intellectuals, political leaders, organisations, and concerned citizens around the world who raised their voices against the conviction, calling their statements, articles, reports, and social media campaigns a ray of hope that had “cracked the wall of silence built through years of fear, suppression, and censorship.”
However, Dr. Sabiha cautioned that this single case represented only a fraction of the broader crisis. She revealed that BYC leaders face approximately 50 other cases built on similar charges and noted that for the past twelve days, political prisoners had been staging a protest sit-in inside the prison premises under the open sun against “faceless trials.”
Dr. Mahrang’s sister and legal team member Nadia Baloch had earlier confirmed that “Dr. Mahrang’s case was shifted from an open court to a jail trial, then from the jail it was shifted to a faceless trial.” Arab News
Dr. Sabiha argued that silence in Balochistan was not accidental but deliberately manufactured through state repression citing the intimidation, abduction, and killing of journalists, the jailing of political activists, the harassment of human rights defenders, and the filing of cases against those who spoke on social media.
She said that silence had allowed injustice to be normalised. “When a society’s cries cannot be heard, the oppressor gains more courage and that is exactly what has happened in Balochistan,” she said, adding that thousands of families continue to wait for missing loved ones while hundreds of mothers roam from door to door seeking justice.
International rights group Amnesty International has called for the immediate release of Dr. Mahrang Baloch and other detained activists, with its Acting Regional Director for South Asia Isabelle Lassee stating that the verdict was “an affront to the right to a fair trial” and that anti-terrorism laws were being “cynically misused to silence peaceful dissent.” The Sun
Dr. Sabiha named Dr. Mahrang Baloch, Sibghatullah Baloch, Beberg Baloch, Gulzadi Baloch, Beebow Baloch, and other political prisoners as still awaiting freedom, urging the world not to treat its solidarity as a temporary reaction.
“Your one post, one article, one investigative report, one statement, one protest, one question can make a difference,” she said. “Do not let this voice become a momentary response. Turn it into a permanent commitment, a continuous resistance, and a global human rights movement.”
She concluded with a direct appeal: “Keep speaking because silence is the oppressor’s greatest weapon, and voice is the oppressed’s greatest defence. Keep speaking until the political prisoners are free.”
