A Baloch woman has reportedly been forcibly disappeared by Pakistani security forces in Turbat, Balochistan. It is the second reported case involving a Baloch woman in just over a month.
According to local sources, 30-year-old Rubina Baloch was taken on Monday while visiting her sister in the Overseas Colony area of Turbat city. She is employed as a government Lady Health Visitor and is originally from Gowarkop in Kech district.
Eyewitnesses said she was detained by personnel of the Frontier Corps and Military Intelligence during a targeted raid at around 4:00 p.m. Her whereabouts remain unknown.
The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) confirmed the incident and expressed deep concern over what it described as a “growing trend” of forcibly disappearing Baloch women. It called for Rubina’s immediate release.
The Baloch Women Forum also condemned the abduction. In a statement, the group said: “It is deeply disheartening to note that this afternoon at around 4 on June 30, another Baloch woman, Rubina Baloch, daughter of Mohib Ullah and a resident of Sari Kallag Gowarkop, was forcibly detained from Turbat’s Overseas Colony while at her sister’s home. She is a Lady Health Visitor by profession, who was taken illegally.”
The forum warned that such disappearances involving Baloch women are “becoming common” and urged the state’s law enforcement agencies to “refrain from involving women in the heinous act of enforced disappearances and unknown detentions.”
Rubina’s abduction comes just one month after the disappearance of Mahjabeen Baloch, a 24-year-old student and polio survivor, who was taken from Quetta Civil Hospital on 29 May.
Mahjabeen had been temporarily staying at the hospital due to a lack of space in her university hostel. She was reportedly taken during a joint operation involving police, the Counter-Terrorism Department, and intelligence officials. Her whereabouts also remain unknown.