Latest news with #BalochistanNationalParty
Business Recorder
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
BNP chief Akhtar Mengal barred from traveling abroad, offloaded at Quetta airport
Balochistan National Party (BNP) President Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal was stopped from boarding an international flight on Sunday, with immigration officials citing his name on the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL), a watchlist used to restrict international travel. According to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Mengal was offloaded from a private airline flight bound for Dubai at Quetta International Airport. The officials said his name being on the PNIL was the reason he was prevented from flying. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Mengal confirmed the incident and said he was informed by immigration staff at the airport that he could not travel because his name was listed on the PNIL. 'I was scheduled to fly to Dubai, but was offloaded without prior notice,' he said. The move has sparked condemnation from senior BNP leaders. Former federal minister Agha Hassan Baloch and Ghulam Nabi Marri termed the act 'illegal and unconstitutional.' Mengal and BNP are supporters of terrorists: PPP They emphasised that Mengal is still a sitting member of the National Assembly, and his resignation, submitted earlier, has not yet been officially accepted. 'The government has no legal grounds to bar a serving MNA from international travel,' the BNP leaders said, calling for an immediate explanation from the authorities concerned. Mengal, a key voice from Balochistan in the federal legislature, has been vocal about rights violations in the province and the enforced disappearances issue. The travel restriction is likely to draw further criticism from political and human rights circles, who see such actions as part of a broader clampdown on dissenting voices.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rights Activist Mahrang Baloch Writes From a Pakistan Prison
Supporters of Balochistan National Party carry posters of Mahrang Baloch during a protest in Quetta on May 2, 2025. Credit - Banaras Khan—AFP/Getty Images It has been more than two and a half months since I was thrown into prison—Hudda Prison, in Quetta, Pakistan, the same place father was caged nearly two decades ago, also for promoting the rights of the people of Balochistan. Since my arrest, Pakistan's state secuity agencies have deployed every tactic to break me. I have been offered a deal: stay silent, avoid political activity, and you can be home. I refused. The state has failed to produce a single piece of evidence linking me to any act of violence or criminality. The only "proof" they cite is a press conference I gave a few days before my March 22 arrest. I spoke to reporters after armed militants had hijacked a train and held 300 passengers hostage for hours. The attack occurred in the Balochistan, the largest province in Pakistan, and was carried out by Baloch separatists who have been fighting with the state for decades. At the press conference, I spoke not to defend the hijackers—our movement, the Baloch Yakjehti [Unity] Committee, has always renounced violence. Indeed, my intention was to draw a distinction between those who confront the state with arms and those who confront it with words. It's a crucial distinction, one the state prefers to blur. In Pakistan, 'terrorist' is a label pinned on anyone who advocates for Baloch rights. Those who speak up run the risk of arrest by military and intelligence agencies. After their arrest, they might never be seen again. If they are, it is often as a body, produced after a violent incident like the train was why I asked reporters: Who were the more than two dozen 'unidentified' bodies brought to Quetta's Civil Hospital after the hijacking? And why were 13 of them buried overnight without being named? The attackers, the Baloch Liberation Army, had released pictures and details of the 12 militants it said were killed. The identities of the rest were a mystery, but we had our suspicions. In Balochistan it is common practice, after violent episodes, for the forcibly disappeared persons to be put to death, and their bodies produced as those of militants. I demanded DNA testing of those who had been buried in the dead of night. Families of the disappeared feared, with good reason, that their loved ones were among more: Pakistan Jails Baloch Human Rights Activist So I am in jail for insisting on the distinction between peaceful activism and violence. My work had already drawn unwelcome international attention. In May 2024, Pakistani officials were outraged after I visited Norway at the invitation of PEN Norway, the Norwegian branch of PEN International and the World Expression Forum. I was even harassed on Norwegian soil by individuals linked to Pakistan's embassy in Oslo, whose intervention was ended by the Norwegian domestic security agency, PST. When I returned to Pakistan, I was immediately charged with sedition, and treated as if I had returned from an ISIS camp in Syria or Iraq rather than one of the most peace-loving countries in the world. In October, the government's smear campaigns amplified with my inclusion on the TIME100 Next Emerging Leaders. I was called 'Malala 2' and a Western puppet. Surveillance around me intensified, and I was placed on the Fourth Schedule, an anti-terror watch list typically reserved for hardened militants, and which restricts the movement and activities of the listed. I was barred from travelling abroad. I am learning the price of peaceful activism. For decades, Pakistan has kept the rest of the country, and the world, in the dark about Balochistan. It remains an information black hole. Among those the military and intelligence agencies have forcibly disappeared, killed, or forced into exile are journalists who dare to write about these atrocities. According to the Balochistan Union of Journalists, more than 40 have been killed since 2000. Foreign media are denied access to the region. From this darkness, a woman leading a grassroots movement for Baloch rights was unacceptable. The hostility of the state intensified with the BBC's 100 Women list, and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. But if international pressure has prevented my being killed, I face psychological warfare, threats, and the constant spectre of danger. I write this the day my sister told me that the Islamic State of Khorasan (ISIS-K) released a 100-page Urdu-language booklet accusing me of being a Western agent. Their "evidence"? The TIME honor and Norway trip. Other BYC leaders are in jail with me: Sabghat Ullah Shah Jee, Beebarg Zehri (a disabled man), Gulzadi, and Beebow. I tell them: We are not the first to be imprisoned for demanding peace, justice, and rights. From Nelson Mandela to Narges Mohammadi, we walk the same path. We draw strength from their courage, intellect, and defiance. Our movement is rooted in peace. We speak against enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, forced displacement, and the systematic denial of basic rights to the Baloch. We are the rightful owners of the Saindak Copper-Gold Project (worth billions of dollars, but the profits are not shared with the local population), the Reko Diq mine (estimated to hold copper and gold reserves worth over $60 billion, but the benefits are not reaching the Baloch people), and Gwadar — the gateway to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Yet, 70% of Balochistan's population lives below the poverty more: Pakistan Bars Activist From Traveling to TIME Event Honoring HerThe state is offended and brands us terrorists and violent. But we are not violent. The state is armed, powerful, and ruthless. It uses violence to silence those who ask for justice. The practices once reserved for the Baloch, considered lesser citizens, are now expanding to other parts of Pakistan. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his party are now under the military's wrath. He is jailed. Is Imran Khan also a terrorist? Are members of his PTI party now "agents of hostile agencies"? If the Pakistan Army and its intelligence agencies are as competent as they claim to be, why have they failed to present a single piece of credible proof? Why have they not held a fair, transparent trial? Because this isn't about the law; it's about fear, their fear of our truth. This prison is more than bricks and bars. It carries the memory of my father. As a child, I visited him here. I didn't grow up playing with toys. I grew up holding posters of my father, who was detained and then disappeared. When I turned eighteen, I received his lifeless, tortured, bullet-riddled body. This is not just my story. It's the story of every child in Balochistan. Childhood here is shaped by grief, fear, and posters of the disappeared. When our generation came of age, those of us raised in the shadows of state violence, we vowed: No child after us should suffer the same fate. We are fully aware of the power imbalance between us and a nuclear-armed state. It controls the media. It runs smear campaigns. It weaponizes the judiciary. It deploys overwhelming force. It controls the parliament. It operates proxy groups and armed militias. Our confinement is part of a war of narratives. Speaking up for justice is not a crime. Raising our voices against state violence is not treason. Demanding rights is not terrorism. It is humanity. And one day, we believe, this struggle will succeed. Contact us at letters@
India Today
14-05-2025
- Politics
- India Today
'We're not Pakistani': Baloch leader declares independence from Pak
Baloch representative Mir Yar Baloch has declared Balochistan independent from Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of decades-long violence, enforced disappearances, and human rights abuses in the region. The announcement was made via posts on social media platform it the 'national verdict' of the Baloch people, Mir Yar wrote: 'Tum maroge hum niklenge, hum nasal bachane nikle hain. Aao hamara saath do.'advertisementHe said Baloch people across 'Pakistan-occupied Balochistan' are on the streets and that the world can no longer remain silent. Mir Yar also urged Indians—especially media, YouTubers, and intellectuals—not to refer to Balochs as 'Pakistan's own people.''We are not Pakistani, we are Balochistani. Pakistan's own people are the Punjabi who never faced air bombings, enforced disappearances and genocide,' he Baloch leader expressed full support for India's position on Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). He said:'Balochistan fully supports the India decision of asking Pakistan to vacate PoK. The international community must urge Pakistan to immediately leave PoK to avoid another humiliation of surrender on its 93,000 army personnel in Dhaka.'He warned that if the situation escalates, the blame would fall on Pakistan's military leadership: 'India is capable of defeating Pakistan army and if Pakistan didn't pay any heed then the only Pakistani greedy army generals must be held responsible for bloodshed because Islamabad is using PoK people as human shields.'advertisementMir Yar called for official recognition of Balochistan's independence and urged the international community to reject Pakistan's narrative, stating that Balochistan was forcibly annexed with foreign region has witnessed ongoing violence, disappearances, and extrajudicial killings for years. Rights groups have accused both Pakistani security forces and armed militants of widespread abuse. Civilians remain trapped in the conflict, with minimal media access and little legal to the growing dissent, former Balochistan Chief Minister and Balochistan National Party (BNP) President Akhtar Mengal recently voiced serious concerns about the situation. In a post on X, Mengal said: 'There is not a single inch of Balochistan left where the government can claim authority. They have lost this war completely and irreversibly. It is over.'Mengal accused the Pakistani state of ignoring repeated warnings from Baloch leaders: 'We warned them, just as those before us warned them. But instead of listening, they mocked us. They dismissed our words as empty threats while they fueled a system of oppression, looting, and bloodshed.'He held every major institution—government, judiciary, political parties, and the military—responsible for the region's suffering.'To the federal government, to the political parties, to the judiciary, and to the establishment—you have brought Balochistan to the brink of destruction with your own hands. But this time, it is beyond our control. And it is beyond yours as well,' he resigned from his National Assembly seat in September 2024, citing worsening conditions and the rising number of enforced disappearances targeting Baloch activists. He said he no longer saw any purpose in remaining part of the crisis further deepened on March 11, 2025, when Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) militants hijacked the Quetta–Peshawar Jaffar Express, taking more than 212 passengers hostage, including security InMust Watch
Express Tribune
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Mengal calls off sit-in, announces new protest drive
Listen to article Sardar Akhtar Mengal, chief of his own faction of the Balochistan National Party, on Wednesday called off his 20-day-long sit-in at the Lakpass area of Mastung district against the arrest of Baloch activists, fearing its impact on traders in the impoverished province. The party had launched the long march to protest the arrest of BYC chief organiser Dr Mahrang Baloch, other leaders and workers as well as police crackdowns on a sit-in. Mengal had announced that the party would march on Quetta but was kept at bay by the government. Addressing a news conference in Mastung, Mengal called off the sit-in, saying: "We believe in a peaceful struggle. We are not ending the movement but will initiate a public outreach movement from today." He announced that the party would organise rallies and protests at district level across Balochistan in the coming days. "In the first phase, we would hold protest rallies in Mastung, Kalat, Khuzdar and Surab. In the second stage, these rallies would be held in areas of Turbat, Gwadar and Makran," Mengal explained. He added that the third phase of his protest movement would engage the public in the Nasirabad, Jaffarabad and Dera Murad Jamali districts, along with other areas of Balochistan. "We are not backing down, we are taking the movement to every corner of Balochistan," he declared. The BNP-M leader emphasised that the campaign aims to bring national attention to the issue of enforced disappearances and prolonged detentions without trial. He called on the federal and provincial governments to respond to the growing concerns of the Baloch people. Mengal's announcement marks a new phase in the party's political efforts to address grievances through democratic means, while keeping the spotlight on unresolved human rights issues in Balochistan. Meanwhile, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti lashed out at the BYC, terming its activists "abettors" of separatists. Responding to a query during a news conference in Islamabad, CM Bugti said: "Those who call themselves human rights activists, the BYC, are not registered anywhere. "They burn Pakistan's flag wherever they pass through. They are not peaceful, they are abettors of those from the separatist movement and terrorists," he alleged. The chamber of commerce in Quetta told local media that the rally had caused economic losses of $120,000 a day, with traders complaining that their loaded trucks could not cross into Iran or Afghanistan. The decision came a day after a court refused to rule on the detention of the activist Baloch, who, along with criminal charges of terrorism, sedition and murder, faces a public order offence brought by the provincial government. The court instead passed the case to the government, a decision her lawyers said would delay justice. Army chief downplayed the growing insurgency in an address aired by state television. "1,500 people will say that they are going to take away Balochistan from us? Your next 10 generations cannot even take it from us," General Syed Asim Munir said. He said foreign investment would flow into the region after Pakistan hosted a mining conference this month.
Express Tribune
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
CM urges respect for constitutional limits amid BNP protest
Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti has said that while peaceful protest is a constitutional right of every citizen, the authority to allow public assemblies lies with the government, and everyone must respect the constitutional framework. He expressed these views during a meeting with Nawabzada Mir Israrullah Khan Zehri and Sardar Kamal Khan Bangulzai at the Chief Minister's Secretariat on Monday. The two Baloch nationalist leaders called on the CM to pave the way for a negotiated settlement regarding the ongoing long march of BNP chief Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal. The meeting focused on the ongoing protest by the Balochistan National Party (Mengal), as well as the overall political situation in the province. CM Bugti briefed the two leaders on the government's political and administrative efforts to resolve the matter. He revealed that three rounds of dialogue had already been held with BNP chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal. "Out of the three demands presented by him, one has been accepted by the government," he said, adding that despite the government's serious efforts to reach a political resolution, the response from the other side remained non-cooperative, leading to a continued deadlock. The chief minister, along with Zehri and Bangulzai, stressed the importance of joint efforts for lasting peace in Balochistan. They also agreed to continue political dialogue and engagement to address issues. Meanwhile, a shutter-down strike was observed in various parts of Balochistan on the call of Balochistan National Party in solidarity with the BNP protest. The BNP, led by Sardar Akhtar Mengal, has been staging a sit-in in the Lupas area of Quetta for over a week.
