Claim: At a rally in Dalbandin, Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) member Gulzadi Baloch praised the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a proscribed militant group.
Fact: An incomplete clip of Gulzadi Baloch has been shared out of context. In the original interview, she mentioned a young local boy who had welcomed and declared his support for the BYC’s rally in Dalbandin.
On 22 March, X user posted a video (archive) claiming that it shows Gulzadi Baloch, a BYC member, praising the BLA. The post can be seen below:
The caption accompanying the video seems to suggest that the Dalbandin protesters were greeted by BLA fighters, and therefore, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee is associated with the proscribed militant group.
In the clip included in the post, Gulzadi Baloch can be heard saying [translation from Urdu]:
“The person who was atop a mountain welcomed us from there. He saw a picture of Dr Mahrang on the car and that we were heading towards Dalbandin. But he couldn’t join us. Still, he welcomed us wholeheartedly and said that I am here too, I am also your voice, I too stand against the Baloch genocide. His love rekindled the history of the love and culture among the Baloch, and the sense that wherever the Baloch are, they are with their people.”
Gulzadi Baloch and the crackdown on the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC)
Gulzadi Baloch is a human rights activist and a member of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, a rights group that advocates for an end to enforced disappearances in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan.
She was forcibly arrested and beaten by the Counter-Terrorism Department of Balochistan earlier in April, according to the BYC.
The arrest comes amid a larger crackdown on BYC leaders who were detained following their protests in Quetta. The demonstration occurred after families of missing persons were denied entry into the morgue at Civil Hospital in Quetta, who wanted to identify dead bodies brought to the hospital.
A BYC spokesperson confirmed to Dawn that these families had gathered at the Civil Hospital, hoping to identify if any of the dead bodies at the morgue belonged to their missing family members, who either do not return or are found dead bearing signs of torture. The spokesperson also told Dawn that police baton-charged the protesters after they tried to gain access to the morgue, and arrested several people.
Quoting official sources, Dawn reported that BYC members forcefully entered the hospital and took away five unidentified bodies with them, three of which were later retrieved.
However, authorities claimed the bodies belonged to insurgents from the banned militant group BLA, who were killed in a military operation following the BLA’s hijacking of a passenger train on 11 March.
Following the BYC protest about the Civil Hospital incident, the authorities arrested the BYC leadership. Mahrang Baloch and Sammi Deen Baloch demonstrated against the detention of the group’s members, which also led to their arrest.
As of the writing time, the Balochistan High Court declined the petition filed by Mahrang’s sister for her release on 15 April, whereas Sammi was released on 1 April.
Fact or Fiction?
Reverse-searching keyframes from the video led to an extended version of the 35-second long viral clip. This three-minute video (archive) on TikTok posted on 24 January with the caption [translated from Urdu]: “Comrade Gulzadi Baloch while giving an interview during Dalbandin rally” matches the video in the claim.
In the video, Gulzadi Baloch claims that the state fears the BYC because they united the people of Balochistan, and she said the people of Dalbandin welcomed them openly.
At timestamp 1:50, Baloch says [translated from Urdu]:
“Lots of love… the love that people here [have], the state had repressed those emotions. After I arrived here, I noticed the innocent children, that if they were in any other region, they would be playing with toys today. He would have been studying in school. But since they are Baloch, they have seen all the atrocities. So, from where they were watching us, they were welcoming us with the symbol of victory.
“I saw a small child who had the right to study. Had he not been a Baloch, he would have had the other rights, the facilities of life that other people have. But because he is a Baloch, he was a shepherd. I saw him. The person who was atop a mountain, welcomed us from there. He saw a picture of Dr Mahrang on the car, and that these people were going towards Dalbandin. But he could not join us. Still he welcomed us wholeheartedly and said that I am here too, I am your voice, I am also against the Baloch genocide. So his love rekindled the history of the love and culture among the Baloch, and the sense that wherever the Baloch are, they are with their people.”
The longer version of the clip clearly shows that Gulzadi Baloch was referring to a young shepherd boy who welcomed them from the mountains during the BYC’s rally to Dalbandin. She was not praising a BLA militant.
It is important to note that this article is not investigating any of the claims Gulzadi makes in the original video interview.
The rally was organised by the BYC in January 2025 to demand an end (archive) to enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan, the southwestern province of Pakistan.
Finally, an even longer version of the same video, shared on Facebook on 24 January, titled [translated from Urdu], “Comrade Gulzadi Baloch at the Dalbandin rally,” confirms that Gulzadi mentions a young shepherd who greeted them from the mountains. She does not mention the BLA, confirming that the X post misrepresented her original remarks from the interview.
Virality
The X post was viewed 42,300 times and liked 209 times.
It was reposted on X here, here, and here.
Conclusion: Gulzadi Baloch did not praise the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) in the clip in question. A snippet from her interview has been shared with false context. In fact, she was praising a local young boy who showed his support for the BYC’s rally as it was on its way to Dalbandin.
Background image in cover photo: Arab News
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