The Counter-Terrorism Department of Pakistan cliamed that it had killed 9 “militants” belonging to different Baloch “pro-independence” groups during a raid in Mastung. Baloch rights groups feared otherwise—considering CTD’s chequered history of “fake encounters”, the alleged “militants” might actually be Baloch missing persons. These fears indeed materialized when one of the 9 slain individuals was identified as a Baloch missing person.
According to sources, the slain individual was identified as Yar Muhammad s/o Dada Khan, a resident of Marwar who was harassed into relocating to Quetta due to the rampant military operations in his hometown. He went missing from Quetta’s Hazarganji in March 2016, allegedly at the hands of Pakistani forces.
After several years of imprisonment, the security forces killed him and eight others in an alleged raid. The CTD spokesperson said that they carried out a raid in Mastung after acquiring intelligence that the “militants” were in there. He said that a confrontation had broken out where the “militants” had been killed.