The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Wednesday claimed to have arrested a member of the Baloch “pro-independence” group Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) from the Saeedabad area of Karachi. According to the CTD spokesperson, the arrested individual was allegedly found in possession of illegal weapons and had previously been booked in cases related to murder, attempted murder, and encounters with police.
The CTD further claimed that the individual, identified only by his first name, was allegedly facilitating BLA operatives with an associate named Muhammad Shafi. The department alleged that both men had been evading arrest by hiding in Hub Chowki, Balochistan. Following the arrest, a CTD team was reportedly dispatched to Hub to apprehend Shafi, with additional claims suggesting his father was allegedly operating a sleeper cell of the BLA from a neighboring country.
However, the CTD’s claims once again face growing skepticism from human rights activists and independent observers. While the department frequently reports arrests or killings of alleged members of Baloch “pro-independence” groups, these claims often unravel under scrutiny. In numerous cases, individuals presented as “militants” have later been identified as Baloch missing persons, previously reported by Baloch rights groups as having been forcibly disappeared by state agencies.
Independent investigations and media reports have highlighted a consistent pattern: individuals who are allegedly taken away by the security force from different areas of Balochistan — many of them students, activists, or political workers — are later found dead in alleged “encounters,” or paraded as captured “militants” by the CTD and other law enforcement agencies. These revelations are often backed by family members and rights organizations who produce evidence of earlier disappearance, including missing person complaints and protest records.
Despite repeated outcry from rights groups and families of the victims, the practice of extrajudicial killings and staged arrests continues largely unchecked. Human rights advocates have demanded impartial investigations and called for an end to what they describe as a systematic policy of silencing dissent in Balochistan through enforced disappearances and fake encounters.