Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC): Human Rights Front or Militant Cover?

Introduction: The Weaponization of Victimhood

A story of missing persons and state atrocity has been cleverly exploited in the rough and tumble landscape of Balochistan. The Baloch Yakjehti Committee, which claims to be a grassroots movement for human rights, knows how to induce an emotional response with images of distraught mothers, solemn children and activist figures, all of which can attract the attention of a nation or the international community. However, there is a much more complicated and disturbing reality beneath this carefully constructed façade. The BYC is seen by security analysts and state authorities as a kind of political and narrative cover for the most violent separatist outfit in Balochistan, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).

A Symbiotic Relationship: The BYC-BLA Nexus

The modern concept of asymmetric warfare is based on a coupling of legal and publicised bodies with illegal and violent ones. According to this model, both Mahrang Baloch and the BYC serve as the political and social mask of the terrorist groups of Balochistan. The state instigates law enforcement and intelligence activities in response to violent attacks by the BLA on infrastructure, security officials and non-local civilians.The state uses law enforcement and intelligence measures to counter acts of violence by the BLA against infrastructure, security personnel, and non-local civilians. Precisely at this moment, the BYC has its soft-power machine activated. The BYC is, in essence, a shield for militant networks, as every anti-state effort by the Baloch was cast as an “arbitrary attack” on ethnic Baloch citizens. There have been several notable events that illustrate how the conflict between civil protest and active resistance has become confused in this calculated alignment.

The Jaffar Express Aftermath: A Case Study in Collaboration

In March 2025, after the hijacking of the Jaffar Express and a subsequent military counter-action which resulted in the elimination of several BLA terrorists, Mahrang Baloch and her close associates of BYC staged a violent sit-in in Quetta. While the show of peaceful rights march was abandoned, the protesters shifted their focus to Quetta Civil Hospital. The mob stormed the morgue of the facility in a bid to forestall the due identification of neutralised BLA terrorists by the state authorities and official autopsy procedures, according to reports from state law enforcement. The BYC did not condemn the kidnapping nor did it condemn the threat of the militants. Rather, they presented the dead insurgents as victims of the state, thereby obviating any possibility of a conflict between the two organizations.

The “Missing Persons” Narrative: Strategic Manipulation Exposed

For the BYC, the problem of missing persons is a central theme, which they make a strategic tool to attack the State at home and abroad. The narrative takes care to remove these cases from the context of their operations, while the issue of enforced disappearances is a valid legal one. According to state intelligence reports, a large number of those listed as ‘missing’ by the BYC, have migrated across the border to ungoverned areas of the South of Afghanistan or the South East of Iran to take up active training camps with the insurgents.

One of the most telling examples that revealed how deceptive the BYC was, is the Suhaib Baloch or Amir Baksh case. A July 2024 BYC statement cited he had been picked up by authorities and was missing, putting his name on a “missing persons list” to portray the government as singling out innocent youths. It was brought to a sudden halt on July 25, 2025, when the BLA’s media wing HAKKAL announced Suhaib’s death in combat in Kalat, stating that he was from the suicide attack unit Majeed Brigade. His presumed “disappearance” had been exactly at the time of his induction into the militant brigade. The case of Mahal Baloch, arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department with explosives on him reveals a common operational strategy that is being deployed to rescue people who are mired in civil unrest, in a legal and logistical manner.

The Radicalization Pipeline: From Grievance to Violence

There is a troubling two-phase pattern of radicalization facilitated by the BYC’s activist space, security analysts have pointed out. In the first stage, issues of missing persons, oppression by the State, deprivation etc. are further amplified by protest, social media and emotionally charged propaganda. The BYC’s public strategy is successful and clever: claiming that security operations are brutal and that the militants are innocent. In the second phase, there are handlers of the BLA who are already radicalized, who are then called to underground networks. This pipeline develops political anger to armed extremism and converts vulnerable young people to tools of terrorist violence. What is most disturbing is the educated Baloch women that are targeted. The incident of suicide attack on Karachi University by Shari Baloch in 2022 is a critical and dangerous turning point. Subsequent attacks on women in Turbat, Bela, Gwadar and Nokundi provided further evidence that this was likely part of a wider trend of ideological education.

The Selective Silence: A Calculated Rhetoric

A careful study of Mahrang Baloch’s speeches and statements shows that he is ideologically bent towards separatist narratives and is carrying the baggage of a rigid ideology. Her speeches always miss the mark on condemning the mass killings of the BLA’s Majeed Brigade. Even the coordinated highway killings in August 2024, during which dozens of unarmed, innocent non-local workers were shot dead for their ethnic identity, received no response from her platform.Her platform was notably silent even in the face of high profile atrocities, such as the killings of dozens of innocent, unarmed non-local workers in the August 2024 coordinated highway attacks in Musakhel. In contrast, she has used strikingly polarized and emotive language in her remarks to the state to weaken the power of the federal government. Her consistent characterization of state law enforcement action as “Baloch genocide” and institutional regulatory action as “state fascism” is an attempt to utterly discredit the Pakistani constitution.

The Geopolitical Dimension: India’s Hand in Balochistan

The BLA has always been characterised by Pakistan officials as being a proxy of India’s intelligence agency RAW. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said Pakistan’s intelligence has established all the connections are towards India in the recent attacks in Balochistan by Balakotli separatist organisation BLA. The arrest of a major commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in Balochistan has added to the list of evidence of the complicated relationship between militant groups. Indian spying agency RAW had been responsible for the affiliation of BLA’s Majeed Brigade and TTP under the “full patronage” of the Afghan Taliban, said Commander Nasrullah alias Maulvi Mansoor. The captured commander said that TTP and BLA networks were to create safe havens in Balochistan, to hinder Pakistan China friendship and CPEC projects and to fabricate missing persons cases through kidnapping for ransom. The government has listed the BLA among other Baloch groups as “Fitna al Hindustan,” which it claims are using India as a proxy for the destabilisation of Pakistan with hybrid warfare.

The International Campaign: Nobel Nomination and Foreign Networks

BYC’s international lobbying has led to additional doubts as to its true nature. Mahrang Baloch has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize via foreign networks. Mahrang Baloch held a meeting with the Norwegian Nobel Committee Member and Secretary General of PEN Norway, Jørgen Watne Frydnes in May 2024. Kiyya Baloch, an activist living in Norway, who repeatedly writes in support of the BLA, was the one who granted this access. A member of the Nobel Committee had direct contact with a controversial figure who was associated with a movement linked to proscribed terrorist groups. Frydnes and those who have been in his entourage have not criticized the BLA’s bloody ethnic killings or suicide bombings. Rather, they champion a narrow conception of victimization. When supporters of a known terrorist group are promoted to the status of Nobel Peace Prize candidates, it threatens the very principles of global counterterrorism pledges.

The State’s Response and International Criticism

The State’s move to formally initiate legal action against Mahrang Baloch is based on national security considerations, keeping with the trend of “subversion” seen over the years. Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Quetta on June 22, 2026, found Mahrang Baloch and BYC President Sibghatullah guilty of murdering the Frontier Corps (FC) Trooper Shabbir Baloch in the Baloch National Gathering (BNG) in July 2024. The accused, as well as other arrested BYC members and their counsel, boycotted the proceedings and called it as a “faceless trial. UN Special Rapporteur Andrea Bolanos Vargas has raised grave concerns with the life sentences for the violations of fair trial, due process, abuse of the antiterrorism law, and criminalisation of peaceful assembly.

The CPEC Dimension: Development Under Threat

However, the security environment in Balochistan endangers CPEC, which is seen as essential to unlock the economic potential of the province. Balochistan also possesses approximately 75% of Pakistan’s mineral resources and its strategic position between the South, Central and Middle Asian region makes it of immense geo-economic importance. As of now, more than 8,000MW of electricity has been connected to the national grid since the launch of CPEC in 2015, the travel time between Quetta and Gwadar has been cut down from 24-36 hours to around 8 hours, and more than 200,000 direct jobs have been created across the country. Baloch separatists, however, say that CPEC projects have been benefiting from the resources of Balochistan without contributing to the welfare of the local people. The BLA has stepped up its campaign against CPEC with Operation Dara-e-Bolan in January 2024, which killed 59 in Jaffar Express hijacking in March 2025, and various attacks on Chinese engineers and infrastructure. Dozens of attacks have delayed the implementation of the project, raised expenses and tarnished investor confidence.

Conclusion: A Struggle for Truth and Legitimacy

The BYC-BLA relationship is not a basis for a legitimate human rights movement. Instead, it is a deliberate tactic to threaten national unity and using the plight of families for militant purposes. The challenge for Pakistan is to differentiate between legitimate activism with militancy, to end the propaganda machine by exposing the manipulation of the “missing persons” narrative, to ensure ordinary citizens in Balochistan are protected from those who use their grievances to commit bloodshed, and to provide development by bringing the benefits of CPEC to the people. It is the future of Balochistan that must be determined in a peaceful and stable Pakistan and not through foreign-backed separatist violence. There’s no time like the present to be unambiguous. It is the time for Balochistan to have not an oppressed future, but a future of opportunity, development, and true peace.