The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has called for a complete shutter-down strike across Balochistan on Wednesday, June 24, against the life sentences handed to Dr Mahrang Baloch and Sibghatullah Shahji, with the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) announcing full support for the protest.
In a statement, the BYC appealed to traders, transporters, students, political workers and the wider Baloch public to participate in the strike and “raise their collective voice against injustice.”
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Quetta on Monday sentenced Dr Mahrang, the BYC’s chief organiser, and central leader Sibghatullah Shahji to life imprisonment in a case concerning the death of a Frontier Corps (FC) official whom prosecutors said sustained fatal injuries during stone-pelting at a 2024 protest in Gwadar.
The two leaders, other detained BYC members and their lawyers had boycotted the proceedings over what they described as a “faceless trial” held inside Quetta jail.
In a central statement, the PTM rejected the case and the sentences, saying the ruling had exposed what it described as the role of the judiciary within Pakistan’s state structure.
The group said the justice system had historically been used “to crush the political resistance of oppressed nations”, adding that the law had been subordinated to the interests of state institutions and turned into an instrument for controlling Baloch and Pashtun political movements.
According to the PTM, the proceedings against the BYC leaders failed to meet the requirements of a fair trial, independent legal defence and an impartial judicial process.
It said life sentences had been imposed in cases arising from the “Baloch Raaji Muchi”, while no case had been registered over the deaths of three Baloch protesters during the gathering.
“On the one hand, life sentences are being handed down in false cases against the Baloch Yakjehti Committee arising from the Raaji Muchi gathering, while not even a case has been registered over the three Baloch youths who were martyred by state personnel during the same gathering,” the PTM said.
The PTM statement also questioned accountability for enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and military operations in Baloch and Pashtun areas, asking: “In which court are cases concerning state violence and oppression heard?”
The PTM said the ruling was not directed only against individual BYC leaders, but represented “a clear message” to political voices demanding national rights and resisting state repression.
It added that political resistance in Baloch and Pashtun regions was routinely portrayed as a “security problem”, while political workers were criminalised through what it described as a broader process of repression and militarisation.
PTM said prisons, sentences and state repression had never been able to extinguish political resistance, reaffirming its support for Wednesday’s strike.
“We completely reject this unjust decision and express full solidarity with the Baloch people and all political prisoners of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee,” the PTM said.