Rights activist Mahrang Baloch was stopped from flying out of the country on Monday by the Federal Investigation Agency.
Baloch was stopped by the FIA at Karachi Airport late on Monday night.
According to sources, Baloch’s name is on the immigration stop list, prompting authorities to stop her from travelling.
In a post on X, Baloch said she was travelling to New York for Time Magazine’s gala where other ‘Most Influential Emerging Leaders of the Year’ were invited.
“This action reflects the growing fear and insecurity of the state toward Baloch voices,” she wrote on X.
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“There was no legitimate purpose for preventing my travel, except to silence Baloch voices from being heard internationally, control the flow of information about the situation in Balochistan, and conceal the decades-long human rights abuses occurring in Balochistan.”
She was recently named by the Magazine as one of its Times ‘100 Most Influential People of 2024’.
“With many of the community’s men missing or dead, women like Mahrang are now at the helm advocating peacefully for Baloch rights. Last December, she led hundreds of women in a long march to the capital, Islamabad, demanding justice for their husbands, sons, and brothers,” Time Magazine had written in her entry for the list.
