Naveed Baloch was “forcibly disappeared” when the security forces raided his house in Satellite town in Quetta on October 11th. He was kept in custody for several days and eventually released on Saturday. But as he was returning to his home, two others were picked up from Kharan and Kech and their conditions remain unknown.
According to reports, an individual went missing in Kharan. He was identified as Habibullah s/o Lal Muhammad, a resident of Kalat who worked as a farmer in Kharan. He was reportedly on his way to the civil hospital in Kharan when the Pakistani forces “abducted” him along the way. His condition and whereabouts remain unknown.
In a similar incident in district Kech, an individual identified as Majid s/o Qadir was “forcibly disappeared” by the Pakistani security forces. Accordingly, to the family sources, he worked as a labourer in a foreign country for some time; then returned home and started a new life as a woodcutter.
“Enforced disappearances” have seen a gradual spike over the years and according to one estimate, tens of thousands of persons have gone missing without a trace. In a few fortunate cases, the “missing persons” have returned home safely, but several others have been killed in custody and their dead bodies thrown in random places.
In the Parom area of Panjgoor, the dead body of a man identified as Nawaz s/o Abdul Malik was discovered shrouded in a sac. Nawaz was reportedly returning home when he was picked up along the way. Three days later, his dead body was thrown in the wilderness.