Sometimes, one statement is all that’s needed to tear down the lofty statue. Not even in her wildest dreams, Mahrang Baloch, who quickly rose to fame as the face of a protest camp perched in front of the Islamabad Press Club, could have realised that her one impromptu press interaction would speak volumes about her underlying agenda. In a video making rounds on social media, a foot-in-the-mouth moment saw her confessing the link of those present at the sit-in to terrorists killed during Pakistani strikes in Iran. Following the state’s position on the issue to the dot, she has indirectly acknowledged that the longest-running insurgency in Balochistan was being led for a mistaken cause. Why would the family members of people who are known to have crossed borders and taken refuge in Iran dominate the capital with placards for the “missing persons?” More importantly, why would law-abiding, citizens of Pakistan feel the need to go into hiding, leaving their loved ones at the mercy of the sky? For as long as one can remember, notorious elements in New Delhi have been actively misleading impressionable minds to carry out their agendas. Dr Mahrang’s meteoric presence also begins to make sense if one takes a deeper look at her family ties. Daughter to Abdul Ghaffar Langove, a Baloch separatist leader involved in numerous attacks on state institutions, she has made her father’s assassination a rallying call for the middle class all the while conveniently blue-pencilling the fact that he had been killed in the midst of a gang war. Someone who has availed state resources to pursue opportunities of higher learning should have thought better than to smear mud over the name and credibility of its institutions. There’s no denying that Pakistan needs to engage with young minds irrespective of their domicile or their position on the policy spectrum, but no sovereign state can allow anyone to twist the constitutionally guaranteed right to speech to spew venom against it for the sake of a few colourful headlines. *