The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has been staging a peaceful sit-in protest in Islamabad for over a week, undeterred by state intimidation and unsettled weather conditions. The demonstrators are demanding the immediate release of detained BYC leaders and an end to the ongoing, violent, state-led crackdown against its activists across Pakistan.
This protest is a response to the intensified repression of the BYC, which has gained increasing public support for its opposition to enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. The widespread backing from the public has drawn adverse attention from the authorities, resulting in BYC leaders facing charges including sedition and terrorism, and many have been arbitrarily detained without due process.
The female-led protest in Islamabad, many of whom are relatives of the disappeared, has faced constant intimidation, with concerted efforts by the authorities to dismantle the sit-in, pressure demonstrators into silence, and restrict their right to peaceful assembly. Instead of engaging with their legitimate demands, echoed by repeated concerns from international human rights organisations, including the United Nations, Pakistani authorities have maintained a dismissive stance toward the BYC and its cause. Despite these pressures, the protestors continue to stand firm in their pursuit of justice.
The situation reflects an increasingly hostile environment for human rights in Pakistan. Protest itself has become a contested act. Citizens appear to be forced to plead for rights already guaranteed by law, while the state decides who may or may not access them based on political convenience. In the same capital where UN-designated terrorists are allowed to move and camp freely, unarmed women, whose families have been torn apart, are not permitted to ask for justice. Enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings are treated as matters of national security, while protesting such grave violations is labelled as sedition.
The BYC protest should be seen as a test of Pakistan’s commitment to both domestic and international legal norms. It demands urgent attention from the media, legal observers, and international human rights organisations. Silence in the face of this repression is complicity. It is time for Pakistan to uphold the principles it has pledged to respect, and for the international community to stand, beyond narrow national agendas, with those peacefully demanding justice in the face of crimes against humanity.