QUETTA: Leaders of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, including chief convener Dr Mahrang Baloch, on Friday went on hunger strike protest the alleged mistreatment during custody, according to Mahrang’s sister Nadia Baloch and lawyer Imran Baloch.
On March 22, BYC chief Mahrang Baloch and other leaders were arrested for allegedly “attacking” Quetta Civil Hospital and “inciting people to violence”, a day after a police crackdown in Quetta while protesting against the alleged enforced disappearances.
According to Nadia and her lawyer, Mahrang along with central leaders, including Saghbatullah Shah, Beebarg Baloch, Gulzadi Baloch, and a hundred supporters had gone on a hunger strike last night.
They claimed that BYC leadership had gone on hunger strike to protest the torture by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) officials inside the district jail and the transfer of Beebow Baloch to District Jail Pishin.
“Currently, more than 100 BYC officials are on hunger strike on the instructions of Dr Mahrang Baloch,” they added.
Earlier in a statement published on X on Thursday, Nadia claimed that Beebow had been separated from Mahrang and Gulzadi and imprisoned at District Jail Pishin, alleging that she had been denied access to her family and legal counsel.
“Before being transferred to Pishin, she was subjected to physical torture and mental and psychological torture, and all this was done by state institutions,” Nadia alleged.
“Separating Beebow from Mahrang and Gulzadi is part of a state plan aimed at forcing them to sign a cruel, illegal and baseless agreement through isolation, violence and fear, which they have already rejected,” she wrote.
The BYC leader’s sister further alleged that prison administrators tried to conceal Beebow’s location but later released that information “when the pressure increased.”
“This is not just an unconstitutional move but a grave violation of basic human rights,” Nadia wrote. “We deeply fear that now Mahrang and Gulzadi will also be separated under the same plan and all three will be kept in individual cells in complete isolation.”
Meanwhile, the BYC issued a statement X on Thursday, saying that the group’s leadership were observing the hunger strike to protest “torture inside prisons”.
The group’s statement added that the leadership’s “only ‘crime’ was organising peacefully in an environment saturated with state terror and violence”.
Mahrang’s arrest under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordnance drew widespread condemnation from Baloch rights activists and international rights bodies.
