Police in Karachi have charged Baloch rights activist Dr. Mahrang Baloch with allegedly facilitating insurgent groups, including the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).
The case was registered on Friday, just days after Dr. Baloch was barred from traveling to New York, where she was set to attend a Time magazine event honoring her as one of the world’s 100 emerging leaders.
The First Information Report (FIR) was filed at the Quaidabad police station by a citizen named Asad Ali under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act and Penal Code.
The FIR accuses Dr. Baloch and her organization, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), of various offenses, including blocking highways, inciting violence among educated Baloch youth, obstructing the movement of non-Baloch individuals, and targeting laborers in Balochistan.
It further alleges that Dr. Baloch has ties to nine separatist groups, including the BLA, and claims she facilitates their operations under the guise of protests and public gatherings.
Meanwhile, Dr. Baloch dismissed the accusations as “fabricated” and an attempt by the state to suppress her peaceful activism.
“The fabricated police case against me in Karachi shows how the state has grown increasingly uncomfortable with my peaceful activism, especially after recognition by Time magazine,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“My peaceful activism will not be deterred by such illegal, unconstitutional, and coercive tactics,” she added. Dr. Baloch described the charges as part of a broader campaign to shift blame for the state’s failure to maintain law and order onto activists like her.
“These measures are part of a systematic campaign not only to harass me but also to divert attention from the ongoing failure of security agencies to maintain law and order,” she said.
Dr. Baloch asserted that the FIR is an attempt to threaten the collective struggle of the Baloch people, but she vowed to “remain determined and unafraid of these coercive actions.”
“I will fight this in a court of law,” Dr. Baloch vowed.