section_path: Domestic Reactions/Pakistan/2025 Balochistan protests
section_name: 2025 Balochistan protests
paragraph_text: 2025 Balochistan protests
  
  Beginning on 20 March 2025, families had attempted to gather around the Quetta Civil Hospital, hoping to identify the 23 bodies from the train hijack that were brought there. Police forces began attacking the gatherers using batons to try to disperse them, injuring several women in the process. Further outrage from the civilians were sparked upon reports that 13 of the bodies were quickly buried at the Kasi graveyard by police forces, some of whom wanted to identify them. The public protests led to authorities allowing some families in the hospital and returning 5 bodies to their relatives. The protests continued to the 21 March when police forces were overwhelmed by protesters, some of whom broke into the civil hospital and stole the bodies; the hospital officials claimed that they were linked to the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), which was confirmed true by its activists. Authorities stated that the bodies at the civil hospital's morgue were of unidentified terrorists. Authorities confirmed that subsequent calls for protests were fueled by the conflict between protesters and police in response to the militants' bodies.
  
  On 22 March, the Quetta protests were cracked down upon by police. The Baloch Yakjehti Committee accused police forces of using excessive force against the protesters by firing at them, killing three of them and injuring dozens of others, including seven who were critically injured. Balochistan's government spokesman Shahid Rind claimed that the protesters provoked police using stone-throwing and other methods of violence. BYC chief and Baloch human rights activist Mahrang Baloch led the protests and vowed a sit-in at Sariab Road. Protesters proceeded to launch a sit-in at Sariab Road near the University of Balochistan, where police used tear gas, water cannons, and blank rounds to disperse them. The Bolan Medical College Hospital and Quetta Civil Hospital confirmed several deaths and injuries from the protest suppression. Mahrang Baloch claimed that the protests were fueled by the arrests of the BYC leader Bebarg Baloch and several members of his extended family and that three people were killed in the protests while thirteen others were injured. The Balochistan government's spokesman argued that protesters pelted police with stones, injuring ten of them in the process. The BYC continued to call for strikes for the next day.
  
  Mahrang Baloch condemned the protest suppression on X, stating that police indiscriminately fired on the peaceful protesters. She along with associate members of the BYC were arrested while the former was participating at a sit-in to protest against humans rights abuses against the Baloch community. The BYC shared a post from Mahrang Baloch that called for Balochistan's state shutdown in response to police violence. It posted photos and videos of various towns and cities from Balochistan participating in the shutdown by closing shops and roads and protests where participants reportedly burned tires to block the roads. Mobiles services were reported to have also been shut down.