By Saho Baloch
Enforced disappearances in Balochistan have remained one of the most critical human rights issues since the 1970s. The crisis intensified during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government in 1973, when a military operation led to the abduction of Asad Mengal and Ahmed Kurd, marking the beginning of a dark era for Baloch activism. Despite decades of protests and demands for justice, the issue remains unresolved. Baloch youth continue to face systematic state oppression, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and body-dumping practices. These policies have escalated over time, creating an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. The Pakistani state has taken extensive measures to suppress Baloch political movements and silence dissent.
Leaders, activists, and the youth are systematically targeted, as the state attempts to dismantle resistance and erase voices demanding freedom and justice. The situation continues to worsen, with enforced disappearances and killings rising at an alarming rate, leaving families devastated and communities struggling to survive under oppression.
Dr. Deen Mohammad Baloch, a dedicated Baloch activist and physician, was born in Qadir Bakhsh’s house in 1969, in a remote village in Mashkay Reki Tehsil, Gajjar District, Awaran, Balochistan. His pursuit of education began at Mashkay Naly Middle School. He laid the foundation for his academic journey upon completing middle school. He advanced to Gajjar High School in Mashkay, where he further honed his knowledge, developing a passion for medicine and aspiring to be a doctor in the remote area of Mashkay. He continued his studies in Khuzdar, eventually earning his MBBS degree from Bolan Medical College, Quetta. Beyond his medical career, Deen Jan became deeply involved in activism, advocating for the rights of the Baloch people and standing against the oppression of the Baloch nation. His contributions remain significant in the struggle for justice and human rights in Balochistan.
Dr. Deen Mohammad devoted his life to serving the Baloch nation through medicine in remote areas like Ornach, Jahoo, and Khuzdar, where few dared to go; he treated patients free of cost and, in many cases, personally provided medicines to those in need.
His unwavering commitment made him a lifeline for the poor and marginalised. Dr. Deen Mohammad Baloch’s unwavering humanitarian work and dedication as a doctor left a lasting impact on Balochistan, especially in Ornach, where he was appointed. His commitment to serving the most neglected communities earned him deep respect, and even after sixteen years of his disappearance, the people he once treated continue to stand with his family, hoping for his return.
Beyond his medical service, he was a member of the central committee of the Baloch National Movement, deeply committed to the Baloch cause and resisting suppression. His fellow party members still await his return, holding onto the hope that justice will prevail. His absence remains a painful void, but his legacy of compassion and struggle lives on.
June 28, 2025, marks sixteen years since the enforced disappearance of Dr. Deen Mohammad Baloch, a physician and political activist from Balochistan. On that fateful night in 2009, he was forcibly taken by Pakistani security forces from Ornach, Khuzdar, while on duty at Ornach Hospital, leaving behind a family that has since fought tirelessly for his return.
For sixteen years, his loved ones, especially his daughters, Sammi Deen Baloch and Mehlab Deen, have grown up in protest camps and press clubs, demanding justice. Sammi, in particular, has led numerous marches from Quetta to Karachi and Islamabad, relentlessly advocating for her father and other missing persons. Despite multiple changes in government, under Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan, and Shahbaz Sharif, the silence remains deafening, and the fate of Baloch missing persons remains unresolved. Despite international appeals and human rights organizations calling for justice, his whereabouts remain unknown. His family’s struggle embodies the resilience of those who refuse to let the enforced disappeared fade into obscurity. As another year passes, the demand for accountability grows louder, urging the world to recognize the plight of Baloch missing persons and stand against injustice.
Dr. Deen Mohammad Baloch’s case has not only drawn legal and international attention, but his family has faced severe retaliation for their activism. His daughter, Sammi Deen Baloch, has been abducted multiple times, and illegal cases have been filed against her for highlighting her father’s disappearance and advocating for Baloch missing persons. In 2024, her relentless struggle was recognized when she received the Front Line Defenders Award in Dublin for her human rights work. Soon after, she was invited to speak at a conference in Brussels, but was stopped at Karachi Airport, detained for several hours, and placed on the Exit Control List (ECL). Meanwhile, her family continues to face daily threats.
Their hometown, Mashkay, has been under tight control by Pakistani security forces and death squads, leading to the destruction of their home and assets. Books from Dr. Deen Mohammad’s student years were torn apart, and his family was forced to migrate to Karachi, where they now live in uncertainty. Despite these hardships, Sammi and her supporters refuse to be silenced. Their fight for justice remains a powerful symbol of resilience against systemic oppression in Balochistan.
Dr. Deen Mohammad Baloch’s life is a tale of sacrifice, resilience, and the devastating price of struggle. Born into poverty, he knew hardship intimately, but he was never alone. His elder brother, Siddique Baloch, bore the weight of responsibility, ensuring his younger sibling received an education despite the crushing burden of financial strain, especially after their father’s untimely death during Deen Mohammad’s college years.
Yet, the dreams they built upon education and hope were overshadowed by darkness.
One by one, his closest friends were ripped away from him. Dr. Mannan Baloch, slain in 2016; Shaheed Ghulam Mohammad, the president of the Baloch National Movement, brutally silenced; Shaheed Rasool Bakhsh, a pillar of resistance, snatched from his people; disappeared, murdered, erased from the physical world but immortalised in memory. The corridors he once walked grew eerily silent, the laughter of comrades faded, replaced by whispers of grief and the cries of those left behind.
Sammi and Mehlab’s lives were shattered the day their beloved father, Dr. Deen Mohammad, was forcibly disappeared. A healer torn from his home, leaving behind not just a family, but two young girls who once believed the world was safe because their father was in it. They used to sit beside him, thinking he could treat every illness with a gentle hand and a warm smile, dreaming of growing up to wear the same white coat, never imagining their childhood would end, not with growing up, but with growing grief. Their hearts, once filled with wonder, were broken by the cruel silence of a state that did not return him, that did not explain, that did not care. Childhood, for them, was no longer defined by bedtime stories or schoolyard games, but by protest camps, missing persons banners, and the sound of their mother’s muffled sobs echoing through the nights.
Yet out of their sorrow rose a burning need to make sense of the senseless. Sammi, carrying her father’s name like a burning torch, became a journalist not for recognition but because she refused to let his story die in the dark; she found her voice in the echo of his absence, piercing through the blackout that silences Balochistan. Her every report, a cry from the heart of a daughter still waiting. And Mehlab, whose quiet strength carried the weight of a family’s pain, chose to become a psychologist not just to study trauma but to tend to her own family’s wounds— invisible but endless—each therapy session an act of defiance against the silence they were forced into. Together, they turned their mourning into a mission, their broken childhood into a purpose no force could erase—living testaments to the way love, when cleaved by violence, can still blossom into something unbreakable. And still, every night, they wait. Not just for justice. But for their father to walk back through the door.
Dr. Deen Mohammad’s life is not just a story; it is a wound carved into the heart of a people, a tragedy drenched in loss, a relentless testament to resilience in the face of merciless oppression. Deen Jan was forged by the land of Mashkay, where resilience is etched into the souls of its people and sorrow lingers like an unbroken curse. From childhood, he carried the weight of his homeland’s grief, shaped by relentless poverty, political suffocation, and the whispered fears of those who lived under oppression. But he refused to surrender, choosing instead to heal, to resist, to stand for his people when silence threatened to bury them.
His friends, his comrades, one by one, were disappeared, murdered, erased. And then, on June 28, 2009, the darkness came for him, dragging him into the abyss of enforced disappearance, leaving behind a shattered family and a daughter, Sammi, who would transform her pain into defiance, marching through streets soaked in grief, carrying his name as both a wound and a weapon against injustice. Sixteen years later, his people still wait, still fight, refusing to let his story be buried.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Balochistan Post or any of its editors.