A video is being widely shared, claiming to show Baloch human rights activist Mahrang Baloch declaring Balochistan, in Pakistan, an independent country.
One of the posts sharing the video is captioned, "Mahrang Baloch is not merely a voice. She is a symbol of Baloch resistance & the aspirations of the #Baloch people. Today, she has declared #Balochistan an independent country a bold assertion of Balochistan’s long-standing demand for freedom."
Amrita News also shared the same video with a similar claim.
(Archived versions of similar claims can be found here and here.)
Is it true?: No, the video is from 2024 and is being shared with a false claim.
How did we find out?: We ran a reverse image search on the video using Google Lens and found a video shared in 2024 with similar visuals.
The video was uploaded to YouTube on 29 January 2024 with a caption that reads, "Dr Mahrang Baloch Huge Jalsa in Quetta, Balochistan".
We observed that the video shared recently with the claim has a watermark.
We ran a reverse image search and found that it is the logo of the online news network, The Balochistan Post.
Following this, we went through The Balochistan Post's official X account and found the original post.
The video was uploaded on 27 January 2024 and is captioned "The roar of the lioness! Tens of thousands respond to Dr @MahrangBaloch_'s chants."
The roar of the lioness!Tens of thousands respond to Dr @MahrangBaloch_'s chants. pic.twitter.com/0C9utEXwEI
After running a keyword search, we found two reports on the gathering.
According to News Intervention, Dr Sabiha Baloch, a human rights activist, addressed the crowd at Shahwani Stadium about the history of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC).
Dawn, a Pakistani English-language newspaper, published a report on 28 January 2024.