Tensions remain high in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district, where protests entered a second day on Friday after the abduction of passengers from a van travelling from Hub Chowki to Khuzdar. Demonstrators blocked the Quetta–Karachi highway near Zawa and Zehri, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded.
According to the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), three days ago Frontier Corps personnel stopped the van at Pir Umar. Women and children were forced out of the vehicle, while male passengers were taken away along with it.
The disappeared men were identified as Siraj, son of Bashir Ahmed; Imran, son of Bashir Ahmed; Zubair, son of Mumtaz Ahmed; and Imtiaz, son of Mumtaz Ahmed. BYC said the women were left stranded on the roadside for hours before locals helped them reach Khuzdar city.
Families of the men, joined by locals, staged protests the following day demanding their release. On Friday, Frontier Corps and Levies personnel allegedly opened fire and used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the demonstrators. Local sources said two people were injured, while women were mistreated and young men beaten.
Baba Fateh Zehri, a local elder, told journalists over the phone that the Khuzdar Assistant Commissioner and Levies forces tried to forcibly end what he described as a peaceful sit-in. He appealed to the people of Zehri to join the protest in greater numbers to resist the “excesses” of the Khuzdar administration.
Relatives of the disappeared men have vowed to continue their sit-in on the highway until their loved ones are released.
In its statement, BYC said these events showed how “the Pakistani state has turned Balochistan into a vast prison,” where enforced disappearances occur daily and human rights are routinely trampled. It urged the Baloch public to raise their voices against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, warning that silence would only embolden the authorities.