[4] Baba Jan served 11 years incarceration after being convicted by an anti-terrorism court of participating in a protest against killing of a disaster-affected man and his son by police on August 11, 2011, at Aliabad Hunza.

On 11 August 2011, some of those families protested by blocking Karakoram Highway (KKH) on which the then Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan Syed Mehdi Shah was due to travel.

When news of the killings spread through the Hunza Valley, angry protests erupted in many towns in which a number of government buildings and police stations were torched.

He came in second place, losing out to Mir Ghazanfar Ali Khan of Hunza's ruling family, who was backed by the party of Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistan Muslim League (N).

Jan's candidature was rejected and Asif Saeed contested the election on Awami Workers Party ticket, winning 2,629 votes and coming in 5th in the November 15 polls.

The sit-in started on October 4 at the College Chowk in Aliabad, the families demanded the release of the 14 incarcerated men saying the terrorism charges on them were false and the prisoners were punished for raising their voice for the rights of victims of Atabad disaster.