The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has announced a one-month awareness campaign to mark the completion of one year of what it describes as the forced detention of its leadership, including chief organiser Dr Mahrang Baloch, central leader Beebarg Baloch, Sebghatullah Shah Ji, Gulzadi and Beebow Baloch.
In a statement issued on Friday, the group said the past year had been defined by a “policy of silencing voices through repression”, adding that the campaign would run from 20 February to 20 March.
The BYC said repression in Balochistan was “appearing every day with a new and more horrific face”, alleging that state institutions had adopted “the harshest policies of coercion” to conceal abuses and prevent victims from exercising their right to protest and seek redress.
According to the statement, the crackdown launched against the BYC on 19 March last year “continues to this day with the same intensity” and is not an isolated or temporary measure, but “a continuation of policies aimed at silencing Baloch society, intensifying repression and crushing political resistance”.
The group said that between March 2024 and 20 February 2025, incidents including the recovery of mutilated bodies, military operations, targeted killings, enforced disappearances, forced evictions and alleged fake encounters had kept Balochistan in a persistent state of fear and uncertainty.
It added that delays in bail proceedings and ongoing restrictions on the political activities of detained BYC leaders were part of this broader repressive environment.
The BYC said that amid what it described as severe state pressure, the sense among Baloch people of safeguarding “national survival and collective security” had deepened, arguing that this wider context explained both the imprisonment of its leadership and the enforced disappearance of thousands of young people.
The BYC said the month-long campaign would aim to highlight, at both national and international levels, the one-year detention of its leaders and developments over the past year.
It said the campaign would include social media hashtag drives, art-based initiatives, webinars, pamphleteering, video messages, national and international solidarity efforts, symbolic protests, and the publication of booklets and pamphlets to present what it described as the “full picture of ongoing repression”.
The BYC said the campaign would not only oppose what it called the unlawful detention of its leadership, but would also draw attention to wider practices targeting political activists, including enforced disappearances, restrictions imposed under the Fourth Schedule, and measures described as collective punishment.
“The detention of BYC leaders is not merely a single incident, but a manifestation of the broader repression imposed on Baloch society,” the statement said, calling on political and human rights activists to participate fully.
The struggle for survival and justice, it added, is “a collective responsibility in which the role of every individual is indispensable”.