The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has condemned a court decision declaring its imprisoned activist Gulzadi Baloch an “absconder,” calling the move a “mockery of justice and law.”
Gulzadi Baloch has been in state custody for more than six months, along with fellow BYC leaders Dr Mahrang Baloch, Beebarg Baloch, Shahji Baloch and Beebow Baloch. They were initially detained under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) for three months, but their imprisonment has been repeatedly extended.
The BYC said that despite being held in custody, Gulzadi Baloch had been named in a Mastung FIR and declared “in hiding,” with fresh arrest warrants issued against her. “To declare someone ‘absconding’ while keeping them in custody is a mockery of the law and justice,” the group said in a statement.
It added that the move “raises questions over whether courts are truly functioning as independent institutions, or merely being used as formal instruments of repression.”
The organisation said its leaders are committed to democratic struggle, arguing that their arrests cannot “change the ground realities of Balochistan nor halt this popular movement against state repression.” Instead, it warned, “such unlawful and oppressive actions intensify the public movement.”
The BYC accused the state of “weaponising the law” to suppress political dissent, calling the practice a violation of human rights and “an open insult to the state’s own laws and constitution.”
It demanded the immediate release of all detained leaders, the withdrawal of “false cases,” and an end to what it described as “unconstitutional and unlawful conduct.”