LESS than two years later, the Baloch women are back protesting in Islamabad. They don’t seem to have received much attention this time, but that is hardly surprising. At a time when states everywhere are redefining their relationships with their own people, especially those who think the right to protest is a legitimate one, these women visitors are being treated not just with indifference but resentment.

They have not been allowed to protest in front of the Press Club and are forced to sit on the road. The traders, who have a great sense of timing, are also most upset at the inconvenience caused to them. After all, they already have to deal with so many disruptions in this city, such as dharnas by the TLP, PTI and even Tahirul Qadri in the past. Why should women from Balochistan assume they can behave as do men from Punjab?

When they came in the winter of 2023-24, the caretaker government didn’t bother to talk to them. The current government is no less preoccupied. But it is kinder for it didn’t try to bus them away in the middle of the night, and neither did it encourage other protesters to put up air-conditioned tents right next to them, just to make the women realise that they are not the only victims around.

Among the protesters is the sister of BYC leader Mahrang Baloch. She has come to Islamabad because Mahrang is

© Dawn