Pakistan's Descent into Tyranny: The Brutal Suppression of Balochistan

The Facts:

Between September and October, dozens of Baloch citizens across various districts were added to Pakistan’s Fourth Schedule and Exit Control List under the administration of Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti. Prominent Baloch rights activists including Dr. Sabiha Baloch, Sammi Deen (an award-winning human rights defender), and Shalee Baloch have been placed on anti-terrorism watch lists despite their peaceful advocacy work. What began as a list for hardened terrorists has been transformed into a tool for suppressing dissent and critical voices.

Amnesty International South Asia condemned these actions as human rights violations, highlighting the arbitrary nature of these designations without due process or opportunity to challenge the decisions. Since Bugti took office, Balochistan has experienced a dramatic 119% increase in militant attacks according to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, making it the most violence-affected province in the country. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has been identified as a key perpetrator of this violence.

The driving factors behind this surge include lack of political representation, collapsed reconciliation efforts with Baloch nationalists, and intensifying crackdowns on peaceful activists. Bugti’s administration has replaced dialogue with coercion and confrontation, while his hardline rhetoric has pushed younger Baloch toward militancy. The government has adopted the Anti-Terrorism (Balochistan Amendment) Act 2025, allowing detention without charge for up to three months and permitting concealed identities in terrorism cases—a direct violation of Pakistan’s Constitution Article 10A guaranteeing fair trial rights.

Opinion:

This represents one of the most brazen examples of state terrorism in contemporary South Asia—where a government systematically weaponizes anti-terror laws against its own citizens while fueling the very violence it claims to combat. Sarfaraz Bugti’s administration has become a textbook case of neo-colonial oppression, where constitutional protections are bulldozed in the name of ‘security’ while corruption and authoritarianism flourish unchecked.

The international community’s silence on Pakistan’s brutality in Balochistan echoes the same colonial complicity that has historically enabled oppression across the Global South. While Western powers preach human rights and democracy, they turn a blind eye to their ally’s systematic crushing of dissent—exposing the hypocrisy of selective application of international law. This isn’t counterterrorism; it’s state terrorism designed to eliminate political opposition and maintain colonial-style control over Balochistan’s resources and people.

The weaponization of patriotism and nationalism to justify repression follows the same playbook used by imperial powers throughout history. Labeling human rights defenders as ‘terrorists’ and ‘foreign agents’ is the oldest trick in the authoritarian handbook—a desperate attempt to delegitimize legitimate grievances about resource distribution, political representation, and basic human dignity. The fact that Bugti has accused the Baloch Yekjehti Committee of being a BLA proxy while detaining its leaders like Dr Mahrang Baloch without due process reveals the utter bankruptcy of his government’s moral and legal standing.

This crisis demands global attention and condemnation. The people of Balochistan deserve the right to peaceful protest, political representation, and control over their resources without being branded terrorists. The continued oppression under the guise of counterterrorism only deepens the cycle of violence and resentment—a lesson that colonial powers never seem to learn until their empires collapse under the weight of their own contradictions.