April 15, 2025
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
The Baloch Human Rights Council of Canada held a protest march in Toronto on April 12, demanding the immediate release of Dr Mahrang Baloch and other leaders of the Baloch Yekjehti Committee (BYC), who are currently in detention. Organisers said the protest marked the beginning of a wider solidarity campaign calling for their release from what they described as ‘unlawful detention’ by the Pakistani government.
Speakers blared out protest songs and Dr Sabiha Baloch’s voice rang out on the main road of Toronto, where she was heard chanting slogans: “The crowds speak in volumes, the day is ours; our past sacrifices say, the day is ours,” she chanted in Brahvi.
The Baloch diaspora community was flanked by others including representatives of the Sindhi and Pushtun community, as well as Iranian and Kurdish people who also spoke out against state violence that they have suffered in the past. A large poster of Mahsa Amini, who spoke out against the Iranian government was held next to a same size poster of Dr Mahrang Baloch. Pictures of other BYC leaders were also displayed including Sammi Baloch, Dr Sabiha Baloch, and Bebarg Baloch.
Dr Zafar Baloch, head of the Baloch Human Rights Council of Canada said that they had gathered to express their concern on the arrest and imprisonment of human rights activist Dr Mahrang Baloch, who is a big voice in Balochistan against the enforced disappearances and atrocities committed by the state of Pakistan. “She was imprisoned, when she was protesting outside the hospital, where the bodies of many people had been brought. The families were concerned that they belonged to people who had been made to disappear by force, who were being tortured and executed. (She) demanded these bodies be identified and the bodies be shown to the families for the same. The state instead arrested her.”
He continued, “It is very important to us, the Canadian Baloch, Canadian government, international community, European Union, and the UN, that they should raise their voice and pressurize the Pakistani government and their institutions who are holding Mahrang in prison. We have concerns that she was poisoned, and her health is declining.”
The Baloch Human Rights Council of Canada (BHRC) was one of the main organizers of the protest.
Meanwhile others also spoke.
“I am here to stand beside my Baloch friends to demand the release of Mahrang Baloch,” said President of Pashtun Council Canada, Bushra Khan.
Protestors carried banners and raised slogans calling for the Pakistani government to free Baloch and other BYC members. Speakers at the event claimed that Islamabad was attempting to link Baloch’s peaceful civil rights campaign to terrorism-related charges.
They said Baloch’s activism focused on civil liberties and women’s rights and pointed to her recent nomination for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
The BHRC also said that the Pakistani state and its security agencies were responsible for enforced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killings, and widespread human rights violations in Balochistan. The council also raised concerns over what it described as increasing violence against Baloch women.
The protest follows weeks of international attention on the Baloch civil rights movement and comes amid growing criticism of Pakistan’s security operations in the region. Organisers said further demonstrations may follow in other cities in the coming weeks.