Karachi: Amidst heavy police presence, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee was able to hold a press conference at the Karachi Press Club in the Sindh province of Pakistan, on July 31. However, only the committee’s deputy organiser, Lal Wahab Baloch, was able to speak in it.
A large number of police were deployed at the main entrance of press club. Cops were closely monitoring the entrance and anyone wearing the Balochi dress or masks were driven away. The atmosphere was tense throughout.
A driver asked this journalist if the Chief Minister of Sindh was expected to attend given the heavy police deployment.
In Balochistan, a curfew-like situation has been in place since July 26 of this year. Lal Wahab Baloch told The Wire that when he managed to enter the Press Club, journalists were surprised at the fact that he had managed to evade the heavy police presence. Wahab wryly told the attending journalists that he had spent his entire life dealing with the police.
‘Boycott Pakistan’s mainstream media’
Wahab stated that he and the BYC team had decided to share the war-torn situation in his province Balochistan with both local and international media. Wahab noted that holding a press conference was a constitutional right of everyone in the country, but that Baloch people were being deprived of it.
Asad Butt (left) and Lal Wahab Baloch (centre) hold a press conference at the Karachi Press Club. Photo: Veengas.
Wahab said that the Pakistani government had cut off communication services and imposed a curfew-like situation from Gwadar to Makran. Numerous protesters had been arrested and injured as they attempted to join the ‘Baloch Rajai Machi’ or Baloch national gathering. On July 28, when Gwadar residents participated in the gathering, security forces opened rounds of firings on them. The gathering gave way to a peaceful sit-in despite the state’s violent actions, he said.
Wahab said that the people from outside Balochistan who wanted to join the gathering were met with violence. He recounted that, at one point, the state even ordered roads to be dug up to prevent their vehicles from passing.
He criticised Pakistani media for failing to cover these events, emphasising that it was their primary responsibility to report the truth. If their indifferent attitude continues, he said that those in the movement would prefer to communicate only with Balochistan’s local media and completely boycott Pakistan’s mainstream media. He expressed appreciation for the few journalists who independently covered the situation in the province.
Asad Iqbal Butt, chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, joined the press conference and revealed that he had been detained by the police and warned not to attend the Baloch gathering. He criticised the state’s handling of Balochistan, likening it to past failures in East Bengal (now Bangladesh). He also recounted that the police had threatened him by showing him photographs of taken of his sons and Mahrang Baloch at various events.
Social media has emerged the Baloch people’s mainstay under these circumstances.
In response to questions about death threats, Wahab stated that threats could not be ignored as the state had “employed death squads to target BYC main leadership.” He said protesters in Gwadar had also thwarted an assassination plan.
Also read: Protest Organisers Says Balochistan Government Has Ordered Elimination of Mahrang Baloch
‘Orders from above’
Police detained Fozia Baloch, another BYC member, when she arrived at Press Club. She told The Wire that she was unable to collect her change from the rickshaw driver because the police surrounded the vehicle and bundled her into a police van. Once at the police station, the police officers repeated a single line: they had orders from above.
“Since my childhood, I have been hearing this phrase whenever they abduct, shoot, and drag us into a police station. They use it as an excuse to prevent us from joining gatherings. The sentence is always the same, ‘We have orders from above’,” said Fozia.
Fozia described how she and other participants were tortured and blocked from joining the Baloch Rajai Machi. Authorities threatened local bus operators, preventing them from reaching Gwadar, she said. When they managed to find buses, security forces diverted them to deserted routes. Unable to reach Gwadar, they were also barred from entering Karachi upon their return.
They reached the city eventually and held a protest at Hub Chowki, where police purportedly mistreated them and said, “Go protest in Quetta [Balochistan’s capital].” Fozia laughed and remarked, “We were blocked from going to Balochistan, and now they are telling us to go there.”
Open fire
Nadia Baloch, a BYC activist from Quetta, has been leading protests in the city and traveled to Mastung to support protesters. Nadia shared that despite joining protests since childhood, she had never encountered such violence. Police tortured and dragged protesters into their vans, she said. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government is cruel, she added.
Nadia explained that sit-ins were organised across Balochistan, including Quetta, Gwadar, Makran, Wadh, Dulbadin, Mastung, and Turbat. In Gwadar, Makran, and Mastung, where the weather was harsh and resources, scarce, people endured extreme heat and a state-imposed curfew that closed markets. Despite these conditions, they continued the protests, often subsisting just on water.
Security forces warned that anyone stepping outside their homes would be arrested, leaving no routes open for travel. All roads were blocked to prevent the gathering, but Nadia said that violence has failed to suppress the Baloch. “Now everyone has joined the Baloch National Gathering by holding protests in their own areas,” she added.
Mahrang Baloch, Sammi Deen and BYC Leadership, holding talks with official authorities in Gwadar. Photo: By arrangement.
Nadia noted that her children too joined the protests, despite requests from elders to go to school.
‘Guns and talks cannot coexist’
Dr. Mahrang Baloch left a video message appealing once again to international human rights organisations and the media to focus on Gwadar. Regarding negotiations with the government, she stated that while the BYC leadership was ready for talks, the government responded with violence. “You [the state] are holding a gun to Baloch’s head while pretending to want to negotiations,” Mahrang said.
Meanwhile, official authorities met with BYC leadership for discussions. Mahrang clarified that BYC’s demands were that roadblocks be lifted, violence be ceased against the Baloch Rajai Machi throughout Balochistan, all protesters be released, and raids ended.
She warned that if the government continues its violence against Baloch Rajai Machi during the negotiations, the BYC would terminate the negotiation process.
