Pak rights activist sentenced to life in prison

A Pakistani court has sentenced a promiment rights activist from southern Balochistan province to life imprisonment on murder and terror charges, drawing condemnation from civil liberties advocates this week.

Mahrang Baloch, 33, was arrested in 2025 on charges stemming from a protest in the coastal city of Gwadar the previous year, which sparked clashes that left a paramilitary soldier dead.

Baloch, the founder of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), was handed the sentence in an anti-terrorism court in provincial capital Quetta on Monday, according to a copy of the decision.

Her lawyer, Israr Jattak, told AFP his client had boycotted the earlier court hearings “because we didn’t have any trust in the court. This wasn’t an ordinary case.” The court held that Baloch was an active participant in the “unlawful assembly” and “shared the common object of committing the murder” of the paramilitiary force member.

The prosecution had alleged that the security force member was killed after being hit by sticks and stones. Baloch’s legal team denied the charges, and her sister Nadia Baloch told AFP they would appeal the decision in a higher court.