QUETTA, Balochistan: The International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (IVBMP) strongly condemns the severe and politically motivated life sentences handed down to prominent Baloch human rights defenders Dr. Mahrang Baloch and Sibghatullah (Shahji) by an Anti-Terrorism Court in Quetta on June 22, 2026. The convictions are a direct reprisal for their peaceful campaigns against state-sponsored violence repression enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan.
Both activists have been subjected to prolonged unlawful detention for over a year, with Dr. Mahrang Baloch arrested on March 23, 2025, and Sibghatullah on March 30, 2025. Their arrests were part of a broader, systemic campaign of state reprisals, raids, and collective punishment targeting human rights defenders and their families across the region. State authorities have continuously labeled these peaceful advocates as “anti-state” and falsely accused them of supporting militancy, completely disregarding their contributions to non-violent advocacy and peaceful negotiation. Furthermore, a large number of rights defenders have been arbitrarily placed under Schedule 4 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) as a punitive measure.
The court’s recent verdict followed an expedited secret trial conducted entirely inside jail premises completely violating international fair trial standards and due process. Mahrang and Shahji ultimately boycotted the biased proceedings after being persistently denied their basic legal rights, and they were only given the option to join via video link in the later stages of the trial. They were assigned a state-appointed defense counsel who failed to consult with them during the proceedings.
The activists were convicted under section 302 (murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code and section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, for the alleged killing of a Frontier Corps (FC) officer during the Baloch Raji Machi (Baloch National Gathering) in July 2024. However independent human rights watchdogs, including Amnesty International have confirmed that no direct evidence was presented linking either individual to the violence. Instead the judgment implicates Mahrang solely for her participation in the assembly and for delivering a speech where she referred to state officials as occupiers. In stark contrast while at least three Baloch protesters were killed by state forces during the same July 2024 protests no state officials or security personnel have been charged for those murders.
Prominent global rights groups including Amnesty International and Front Line Defenders have fiercely condemned the verdict, calling the anti-terrorism laws a cynical tool to silence peaceful dissent.
Urgent Appeal to the International Community
In light of this egregious judicial weaponization and the total breakdown of due process, the International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (IVBMP) makes an urgent and solemn appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the European Union, global democratic governments, and international human rights bodies:
to exert immediate direct diplomatic and economic pressure on Pakistani state authorities to compel the immediate annulment of these fraudulent convictions and secure the safe release of Dr. Mahrang Baloch, Sibghatullah Shahji and all other arbitrarily detained activists
Global bodies must condition international aid, financial packages, and trade privileges (such as GSP+ status) on Pakistan’s adherence to international human rights treaties specifically demanding an end to the misuse of anti-terrorism frameworks against peaceful human rights defenders.
We call for targeted diplomatic sanctions against the state officials judges and military personnel responsible for executing this mock trial, orchestrating enforced disappearances and enforcing the punitive collective punishment of activists families.
The international community must break its silence and establish independent international observation mechanisms to directly monitor judicial overreach, the misuse of Schedule 4 of the ATA, and the ongoing human rights catastrophe in Balochistan.
The Pakistani state has repeatedly shown that it is immune to local appeals for justice. The IVBMP insists that only decisive, coordinated, and unyielding international diplomatic intervention can halt this relentless culture of military impunity and protect those standing on the frontlines of human rights advocacy.
