February 18, 2026
By Kaleem Ullah
LAHORE
Old ‘Amma’ Houri was often seen in protests and sit-ins, over the past 12 years. Holding a faded picture of her missing son Gul Muhammad Marri, Amma as she was called in affection and respect, also travelled from Balochistan to Islamabad in the hope that she would find at least a trace of her missing son. But she died waiting.
A widow for more than 30 years, the old woman who was in her 70s, carried her grief to the streets, highways, protest camps, and demonstrations, knocking on every door in search of her son. She was visibly frail and ill, but she endured baton charges, threats, hunger, and exhaustion, and not once stepped back from her plea.
In 2025, Amma took part in the 74-day sit-in organized in Islamabad by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) for the recovery of missing persons, led by civil rights activist Dr Mahrang Baloch. She also joined protests in Dalbandin, Karachi, Quetta, and Kohlu.
During the Islamabad sit-in, ‘Amma’ Houri told Voicepk that her son, Gul Muhammad Marri, had been taken away during a raid on their home at around 7 am on August 17, 2012. Since then, she had received no information about his whereabouts.
“During this old age, when even my eyesight is failing, I have still travelled to Islamabad, Kohlu, Karachi, and wherever protests are being held, for the recovery of my son. But nowhere have I received any information about whether my son is alive or not,” she had said in the interview at the time. She emphasised that she had not come to Islamabad for the sit-in out of choice, but out of compulsion.
“My son has been forcibly disappeared – he himself has a young son,” she had said. “Now there is no proper arrangement at home for the child’s upbringing or even his daily sustenance.”
Activists remember a courageous woman
Speaking about Amma Houri’s death and struggle, Nasrullah Baloch, Chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, told Voicepk that she was a ‘powerful voice against enforced disappearances’. The pain of her son’s disappearance, along with her determination to seek the recovery of other missing persons, kept her connected to the movement until her final breath. Sadly, she was never able to see her son again.
“Gul Muhammad Marri was disappeared at a time when he was appearing before the Supreme Court in Quetta in connection with the case of his relative, Dr. Akbar Marri, who had also been disappeared,” said Baloch. “After that, in 2012, he too was forcibly disappeared by the authorities. This is why Amma Houri, along with her granddaughter, would participate in protests everywhere, demanding his release and raising her voice against enforced disappearances.”
Following her death, human rights activists paid tribute to her struggle and renewed calls for the recovery of missing persons. Even former Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari shared a video on her X account, filmed when Amma Houri was returning from Islamabad alongside her daughter human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari.
“Amma Houri came from Balochistan to Islamabad in the hope that someone in the government would listen to her plea. But instead, the very lawyer who was handling her case and showing empathy to these families, Imaan Mazari, was punished. Amma Houri has passed away today, and Imaan has been sentenced to 17 years.”
Quetta based lawyer, Imran Baloch, who has been the counsel of Mahrang Baloch in a few of her cases, and has been closely seeing the protests by BYC for the recovery of missing persons, also commented on her death.
“Such stories are deeply tragic and painful. While it may seem easy for others to talk about or listen to them, incidents like these are a blemish on humanity,” he said. “Amma Houri, who lived in the Hazara Ganji area of Quetta, was not formally educated but was deeply aware and conscious. For the past 12 years, she had struggled for her son’s release. Despite being ill, she continued to hold up his photographs and appear before authorities at every forum, weeping, pleading, and demanding justice. But she was unable to get the only thing she ever wanted in her life – her son.”