Prominent Baloch activist and Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) Mahrang Baloch and two of her aides were sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday by an anti-terrorism court in Quetta.
According to Pakistani media reports, Sibghatullah Baloch and Balach Qadir were also handed life sentences in the same case.
Currently in custody, Mahrang Balcoh has been for years a vocal critic of the policies of the Pakistani government toward the Baloch People.
The sentence has attracted widespread criticism, with several Pakistani politicians and rights advocates condemning the court’s decision.
“Sentencing Dr. Mahrang and Sughatullah to life imprisonment is an expression of hatred against the Baloch nation of Pakistan. This decision will mark the beginning of a historic phase of resistance and struggle,” the BYC said in a statement on X.
The judgment came at a time when Pakistani authorities are organising crackdowns in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), fuelling concerns over how dissenting political activists and their voices.
Mahrang Baloch, 33, was arrested on March 22 last year along with other members of her party on allegations of “attacking” the Quetta Civil Hospital and “inciting people to violence”, according to a report by Dawn. As per the report, the arrests came a day after the activists staged a protest at the Quetta University against alleged enforced disappearances, which triggered a police crackdown.
In its statement on Monday, the BYC alleged that there was no legal basis in the case.
“If even a single acceptable piece of evidence had existed, at the very least it could have been said that the trial should proceed. There are two separate FIRs for this one case, but where not a single solid piece of evidence exists, where the proofs are dubious, where the FIRs contradict each other, there to pronounce a sentence of life imprisonment is not justice but tyranny-and this is no ordinary tyranny, but an open state and judicial tyranny.”
The verdict landed against a backdrop of long-simmering tensions in Pakistan’s most resource-rich yet chronically underdeveloped province. Despite its strategic importance to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Balochistan has seen decades of conflict between nationalist movements and the state, with rights organizations repeatedly flagging allegations of systematic abuse by security agencies allegations Islamabad consistently denies.
In an immediate show of defiance, the Baloch Unity Committee announced a province-wide shutter-down strike for June 24, calling on traders, students, transporters, and political workers to stand in solidarity.
The government maintains that courts operate independently and that the conviction rested on evidence presented at trial. But with international scrutiny now mounting and appeals expected to follow, the case has evolved well beyond a courtroom matter it has become a referendum on Pakistan’s democratic credibility and its treatment of political dissent.
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