Dr. Mahrang Baloch biography & her struggle for Balochistan rights

A human rights activist Dr. Mahrang Baloch belongs to Balochistan and is struggling against oppression done to Balochi people. She is a vocalist for the basic human rights of Balochis.

Mahrang raises her voice against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of Balochis by the security agency of the Pakistani state. She is a 31-year-old M.B.B.S. doctor.

Early Life of Dr. Mahrang Baloch

Mahrang was born in 1993 into a Baloch Muslim household. She has five sisters and one brother. Her family is originally from Kalat, Balochistan.

The father of Mahrang was Abdul Gaffar Baloch who was a Labour, WAPDA employee and Left-wing political leader of the Baloch nationalist movement. Her family lived in Quetta before transferring to Karachi for her mother’s medical care.

Activism and struggle

The activism movement and struggle of Mahrang started when Pakistani security agents kidnapped her father on his way to the hospital in Karachi on Dec 12, 2009.

She began opposing her father’s kidnapping at the age of 16. She became well-known in the student resistance movement. Sadly, her father was discovered dead with evidence of torture in July 2011.

After her father, the security agency kidnapped the brother of Mahrang after 6 years in Dec 2017 and held him for more than three months. She has since become a significant figure in the Baloch resistance movement.

Mahrang has spoken out against the extraction of government of natural resources in Balochistan. She led a student protest in 2020. This protest was against the proposed elimination of the quota system at Bolan Medical College.

The quota system reserves spaces for medical students from outlying districts of Balochistan. Later on, college policy was canceled due to student resistance movements and hunger strikes.

Recent developments and Islamabad Long March 2023

The Baloch activist Dr. Mahrang is actively participating in Balochistan to Islamabad Long March 2023. She said protestors marching to draw attention to what they call a campaign of enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings in their home province.

However, Pakistani authorities have stopped the marchers from entering Islamabad and police have arrested Dr. Mahrang Baloch and other marchers into custody.

Islamabad Police have arrested Dr. Mahrang Baloch for her activist movement

Click here to find out Noor Bakhsh rejects the Attorney General’s report on missing persons in Balochistan

Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) is coordinating this march and Dr. Mahrang led this march. However, she is now in the custody of Islamabad Police. The march began in Turbat district in southwestern Balochistan on December 6, 2023.

Protestors have been underway since last week over the extrajudicial killing of 24-year-old Balach Maula Bakhsh. They are demanding the judicial investigation of Balach.

To summarize all the above, Dr. Mahrang Baloch became an activist while still a teenager after her father and brother forcibly disappeared and died in the custody of Pakistani security agents.