Dr. Mahrang Baloch among Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2024

Activist and leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, Dr. Mahrang Baloch, has been named in Time magazine’s ‘2024 Time100 Next’ list.

The list featured her for “advocating peacefully for Baloch rights”. She is one of the 19 advocates Time selected for the list.

“I am deeply honoured and delighted to be named among the top 100 emerging leaders of the world by TIME,” Dr Mahrang wrote in a Facebook post with a link to the whole list.

She further added, “I dedicate this recognition to all Baloch women human rights defenders and families of victims of forcefully disappeared people.”

The Times Magazine’s list recognizes 100 young individuals “who are not waiting long in life to make an impact,” including artists, athletes, and advocates. Dr Mahrang was selected for her peaceful advocacy and “for all the hope she represents.”

The magazine also honoured her for her leadership in a December 2023 march to Islamabad, where she, along with hundreds of women, marched against extrajudicial kidnappings of Baloch people and demanded “justice for their husbands, sons, and brothers”.

Dr Mahrang came to the spotlight as a primary school student who spearheaded protests after her father went missing in 2009 from outside a hospital in Karachi.

At the time, being the eldest of six siblings, she raised her voice and registered her protest by burning her school books in front of Quetta Press Club. Her father’s mutilated body was later found in 2011.

In December 2023, she led a march and a large sit-in in Islamabad to protest against missing people.

The Current also named Dr Mahrang Baloch as the Person of the Year in 2023.

As per a recent report, a total of 197 missing persons cases were reported in the first half of 2024 alone, with most being in Balochistan.