Pakistan: Baloch activist, Mahrang Baloch laments crackdowns against Baloch students

Baloch activist and organiser of Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) Mahrang Baloch strongly criticised the forcible dismantling of the Baloch Student book stall at Othal University. The book stalls were forcibly dismantled by the administration and police in another stretch of events that reflects the systemic repression faced by the Baloch people in Pakistan.

The activist took to her social media handle on X and said, ” When Baloch students set up a book stall at the ongoing food fair at Othal University, the corrupt Vice Chancellor Malik Tareen and state institutions ordered the bookstall to be demolished. An atmosphere of unannounced closures and crackdowns against students is being created in Balochistan’s educational institutions.”

Local police claim that the orders came from above, and the central administration ordered this crackdown. The confrontation between the central and provincial governments is only becoming muddier, as the authorities claim that the state of Balochistan is pretending to be knowledge-friendly by organizing so-called book fairs and festivals, the purpose of which is only to promote the state narrative.

Mahrang Baloch highlighted that ”under the Balochistan Book Caravan, students of the Baloch Students Action Committee have set up more than 100 book stalls in different cities and towns across Balochistan in the last month. During this book-reading campaign, Baloch students were arrested in various places, including Gwadar, Naseerabad, Hub Chowki, and Rajanpur; false FIRs were filed against them, and the books which are being sold openly in Lahore and Karachi were seized. In this state, the Baloch nation’s awareness has been declared its biggest crime.”

In another post Mahrang Baloch raised incidents of extrajudicial killings of Baloch youth.

Baloch said, “In Makran alone, several youths have been killed through target killings in the last two months. Today, the state death squad martyred a young Balochi language poet, Karim Baloch, through target killing in Tamp Gomazi, while three days ago, young Meraj Baloch was also martyred by the state death squad personnel in the same area. The Baloch genocide has reached its peak, and this new form is extremely dangerous. Earlier, young people were forcibly disappeared, but now they are being directly targeted and killed.”

“We, as a nation, must demonstrate solidarity and vigorously oppose this dangerous policy of Baloch genocide, because the state has made a final plan to systematically kill Baloch people on Baloch land,” she added.