At least nine people, including a woman, have been forcibly disappeared in separate raids in Quetta and Kech district, according to local sources.
Sources said a woman named Nimra Kurd, wife of Jameel, was detained by Pakistani forces in Quetta. Her family said she was taken from her home and her whereabouts remain unknown.
Activists say the disappearances of Baloch women mark a dangerous escalation in the state’s campaign of enforced disappearances, warning that the repeated targeting of women signals a shift in a repression that has long focused on male students and activists.
Earlier this year, on 29 May 2025, 24-year-old Mahjabeen Baloch, a Library Science student at the University of Balochistan and a polio survivor, was abducted from her hostel at Civil Hospital Quetta by personnel of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and Military Intelligence. Her fate and whereabouts remain unknown.
In Quetta’s Sariab area of Lohar Karez, CTD personnel reportedly raided homes, detaining several individuals and taking them to an undisclosed location.
Those identified by sources include Bismillah Baloch, head of the Lohar Karez Public Library, which has served as an education and study centre for local youth; Yaqoob Bangulzai, son of Mullah Mehmood Bangulzai; Bismillah Shahwani, son of Munir Shahwani and also an in-charge at the library; 75-year-old Mama Deen Muhammad, son of Khan Muhammad, along with his elder son Khan Muhammad, a government employee; Yousuf Kurd, son of Haider Kurd; Owais Kurd, son of Haleem; and Shakoor, son of Haleem.
Sources added that six to seven other individuals were also detained during the operation, but their identities have not yet been confirmed.
Meanwhile, in the Urz Muhammad Bazaar area of Hoshab in Kech district, members of a Pakistani state-backed armed group referred to by locals as a “death squad” allegedly abducted Hassan, son of Jan Muhammad. Hassan is the father of Awaiz Baloch, who is himself a victim of enforced disappearance.
The Baloch Women Forum (BWF) condemned the incidents, describing the disappearance of several individuals in Quetta, including a woman, as “the peak of brute by state institutions.”
In a statement, the group said the detention of women, including Nimra Kurd, represented a “deeply concerning new wave” of enforced disappearances across Balochistan, and called for the “immediate release” of all detainees.
BWF also expressed concern over the recent disappearance of Dr Usman Qazi, an assistant professor at BUITEMS, and his brother, Jibran Ahmed, saying that targeting the educated class was “both an anti-educational and anti-human rights campaign.”