Claim: A video shows the Baloch people marching after declaring “war on the state” following Dr Mahrang Baloch’s arrest.
Fact: The video is unrelated to the protests against Mahrang Baloch’s arrest or the ongoing situation in Balochistan. It is from Yemen, was posted online as early as 27 June 2024, and shows a custom or religious event held by the Yemeni Ghula Ajib tribe.
On 22 March 2025, Facebook user ‘IK Point’ posted (archive) a video showing a large number of armed men marching, with the following caption:
“بلوچستان ڈاکٹر ماہ رنگ بلوچ کے گرفتاری کے بعد بلوچ کو م بڑے غصے میں ریاست سے اعلان جنگ کر دیا ماہ رنگ بلوچ کو فلفو رہا کرو..🔥🔥
[Balochistan: After the arrest of Dr Mahrang Baloch, the Baloch people were furious and declared war on the state. Release Mahrang Baloch immediately..🔥🔥]”
The video by ‘IK Point’ — who appears to be a fan of incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — has garnered over 550,000 views so far.
BYC leadership arrested
On 22 March, authorities arrested Dr Mahrang Baloch, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee’s (BYC) chief organiser and an activist who advocates for missing persons and alleged human rights violations in Balochistan, over various charges, including “forcibly taking away bodies from a morgue, incitement to violence and other alleged offences”. Over a dozen others were also detained.
The bodies were reportedly of “five ‘militants’ killed in an operation” by Pakistan’s armed forces against those involved in the Jaffar Express hijacking earlier this month.
During the confrontations between the authorities and the demonstrators, who had been staging sit-ins since 20 March, “at least three protestors [were left] dead”, an official confirmed. However, the Quetta commissioner’s office refuted the reports of firing by the authorities, saying that “no firearms or rubber bullets were used”.
Shortly afterwards, multiple cities in Balochistan, including Turbat, Mastung, Kalat, Kharan, Chaghi, Dalbandin, Dhadar, and Panjgur, saw shutter-down strikes. Authorities also reportedly cut off Internet services in Quetta and surrounding areas.
The BYC then gave a protest call for 24 March, asking people to gather at the Karachi Press Club (KPC), and the city’s commissioner, Syed Hassan Naqvi, imposed Section 144, banning all kinds of gatherings on the same day.
Before the demonstration even began, police started dispersing those who had arrived and arrested multiple people, including BYC leader Sammi Deen Baloch. The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) for the South district, Syed Asad Raza, told Dawn they were detained under Section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
A day later, a magistrate let her go but she was rearrested for 30 days under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO). Her name was among the five recommended by Sindh Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ghulam Nabi Memon.
Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said on 24 March the government had decided not to allow any highway or road to be blocked across the province and that it would “not tolerate any kind of blackmail”. Some elements, he added, were “trying to do politics on the bodies of terrorists”.
Multiple rights groups — including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Amnesty International, and Front Line Defenders — have issued statements over the arrests of and violence against Baloch activists and crackdowns on protesters; some of these can be read here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor and Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girls’ education activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, have also spoken up against Mahrang Baloch’s arrest.
Fact or Fiction?
Reverse-searching keyframes from the viral video led us to multiple posts from 21 March 2025 that carried Arabic-language captions, which, when translated, read, “The Yemenis are coming out from underground to declare a comprehensive war on the enemy.” Some of these can be found here, here, here, and here.
One of these posts carries a longer version of the video.
Soch Fact Check spoke to Abdulrahman Rabie, a freelance fact-checker, through the Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN), an initiative by the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism’s (ARIJ), for assistance in locating the source of the video. He confirmed that the video is indeed from Yemen.
It “shows a religious event held by tribes in northern Yemen known as ‘Yawm al-Nushoor’ [The Day of Resurrection]”, said Rabie, who also collaborates with Al Jazeera’s Sanad news verification agency. “It marks the conclusion of Eid-ul-Azha celebrations, where many participants carry firearms and take part in collective gunfire, accompanied by traditional dance performances.
“Local sources indicated that Yawm al-Nushoor, which takes place on the 19th of Dhul-Hijjah [or Zil Hajj], is a tribal celebration marking the end of Eid and the welcoming of pilgrims,” he added.
Rabie also provided a better quality version of the clip and a 18 July 2022 news report by the Yemeni Al-Hawyah news channel, which wrote that the participants in that year’s ‘Day of Resurrection’ confirmed that “the festival dates back more than a thousand years and is held annually to promote reconciliation, tolerance, and the reception of pilgrims”.
The better-quality video on YouTube was originally published on 27 June 2024 and is titled, “اقوى القبائل اليمنية | عيد النشور قبيلة غولة عجيب | خبريهم يا الجبال المنيعه 🔥 [The strongest Yemeni tribes | Eid al-Nushoor, the Ghula Ajib tribe | Tell them, O impregnable mountains 🔥]”. The viral portion appears at the 49-second mark.
A part of its description reads as follows:
“عيد النشور هو عاده قبليه يمنية لها عدة قرون ، حيث تجتمع قبيلة غولة عجيب ( الغوله ) والقبائل المجاورة لها في محافظة عمران ، للسلام والمصافحة وتقوية الترابط القبلي
[Eid al-Nushoor is a Yemeni tribal custom that dates back several centuries, where the Ghula Ajib tribe (Al-Ghoul) and the neighbouring tribes gather in the Amran governorate to greet, shake hands, and strengthen tribal ties.]”
When Soch Fact Check searched for “Ghula Ajib tribe Yemen”, we came across an X (formerly Twitter) post from 23 October 2024 by researcher Aldan Marki, who also posted the same video and wrote:
“To the Yemeni people, guns are the quintessential symbol to [the] personal and national independence. Guns are deeply interwoven in Yemen’s proud, millennia-old tribal culture. Here’s what the yearly gathering of the “Ghula Ajib” tribe looks like. Just one tribe out of many.”
Soch Fact Check, therefore, confirms that the video is unrelated to Balochistan or the ongoing protests there.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video posted here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook.
On YouTube, it was uploaded here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The video is unrelated to the protests against Dr Mahrang Baloch’s arrest or the ongoing situation in Balochistan. It is from Yemen, was posted online as early as 27 June 2024, and shows a custom or religious event held by the Yemeni Ghula Ajib tribe.
Background image in cover photo: BalochYakjehtiCommitee
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