Students camped out in a wooden cage outside King’s College today (23/02) to raise awareness of alleged human rights abuses in Pakistan.

In their annual protest, tens of Cambridge University Amnesty International Society (CUAIS) activists spoke on a megaphone to passers-by about Balochistan, a conflict-ridden region administratively controlled by the Pakistani state.

The area has long experienced unrest between Balochi nationalist militias and the military, alongside civil unrest over alleged economic marginalisation and human rights abuses.

Protestors encouraged people to sign a petition demanding the UK parliament to “establish an inquiry into the supply of weapons, granting of export licenses, surveillance technology and financial assistance to the Pakistani military, ensuring no complicity in these crimes against humanity. ”

One speaker said: “For more than 70 years, the people of Balochistan have suffered from systematic genocide in the hands of the Pakistani government, carrying out enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and the forced displacement of people from their ancestral land. Our resources and land are continuously exploited, our voices are silenced, and our cultural identity is under constant threat.”

Roshaan Khattak, a filmmaker and Cambridge postgrad studying for a doctorate in human rights, was also one of the guest speakers at the demonstration. Last month, Varsity reported that Khattak had received threats to his and his family’s life, which he alleged had been sent by the Pakistani secret service. He also accused the University of “not taking the threats seriously.”

CUAIS responded to the case at the time, stating: “We demand immediate action from the Vice-Chancellor, Cambridge Administration and Cambridge Police to ensure Roshaan’s safety before it’s too late. We also demand an external investigation to look into the negligence and mishandling by the college.”

Speaking on King’s Parade, Khattak said: “My College has done nothing, they’ve been negligent, In fact, they’ve started threatening me with stopping my research if I don’t stay quiet. There’s no mechanism, nothing, no protection.”

“We also want to push for demands of the UK parliament for putting Visa bans on Pakistani journals. These journals were involved in trying to manage transnational repression,” he continued.

Among the other guest speakers was Mirza Shahzad Akbar, a former cabinet minister in the Pakistani government, who, in 2023, was targeted outside Cambridge in an acid attack. This was one of several alleged transnational threats to exiled Pakistani activists in the last few years.

In 2020, Karima Baloch, a Pakistani human rights activist and government critic, was found dead in Canada. Earlier that year, Sajid Hussain Baloch, a journalist who wrote about human rights violations in Balochistan, was found dead in a river in Sweden.

A CUAIS spokesperson told Varsity: “The cage campaign this weekend has been a real success. Given the university’s inaction on human rights globally, it’s now up to student organisations to stand in solidarity with people of oppressed nations. The university is kind of failing at meeting this reasonable expectation that students have.”

The University of Cambridge has been contacted for comment.