It has been four months since the enforced disappearance of Mir Bashir Ahmed, father of Dr. Sabiha Baloch, a leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC). To mark the occasion, Baloch Voice for Justice launched a social media campaign demanding his immediate release.
According to the family, Mir Bashir Ahmed has been in the custody of Pakistani intelligence agencies since 5 April. Family members allege that intelligence officials threatened to kill him and forcibly disappear other relatives unless Dr. Sabiha Baloch surrendered herself or resigned from the BYC. The family’s home was also raided earlier this month.
Shortly after his disappearance, a group of United Nations Special Rapporteurs issued a joint statement expressing concern over the treatment of Dr. Baloch and her family. The UN experts said they were “deeply concerned” by reports of her father’s enforced disappearance and warned that Dr. Baloch herself could face imminent arrest for her political and human rights work.
BYC leader and human rights advocate Sammi Deen Baloch described the incident as “collective punishment” and “political intimidation”. She wrote that his “only crime” was “being the father of a Baloch woman who dares to raise her voice against injustice”.
She said enforced disappearances are being used to silence dissent in Balochistan, adding, “Sometimes the state denies these abductions. Sometimes it blames the victims. But the goal remains the same: silence every voice that resists.”
Former senator and political figure Afrasiab Khattak called the detention a “textbook example” of “collective punishment”, describing it as “condemnable” and referring to what he said was a colonial-era tactic used against oppressed peoples.
Dr. Naseem Baloch, chairman of the Baloch National Movement (BNM), described the disappearance as a “cruel act” targeting Baloch families. He said, “Mir Bashir Ahmed, father of Dr. Sabiha Baloch, has been missing since his abduction by the Pakistani military. This is not just an enforced disappearance, it is a cruel act of collective punishment targeting Baloch families. Silence is complicity. Everyone must speak out.”
Saira Baloch, sister of disappeared activists Asif and Rasheed Baloch, said the state wants to “silence a daughter’s voice through collective punishment” and questioned, “Can such tactics solve the problem of Balochistan?”
In a public statement, Dr. Sabiha Baloch said her father’s “only crime is that he is my father”. She added, “The state has not detained him for any wrongdoing, but because of me, because I speak out, resist, and refuse to remain silent on the truth. That is why he has been forcibly disappeared.”
She described the case as “a brutal message to every Baloch who dares to speak out” and said, “Enforced disappearances in Balochistan are not accidental, but a deliberate tool used for political pressure. The purpose is clear: to break and isolate us. But neither I nor anyone else among us can be silenced this way.”
Dr. Sabiha Baloch called on international human rights organizations, journalists, and governments to “break their silence”. She said, “Baloch lives matter. Our pain and resistance are political and legitimate.”