A protest in Kech’s Tejaban area against the alleged enforced disappearance of four members of a family, including two women, entered its third day on Saturday, with the CPEC highway still blocked.
Families said they resumed the road blockade after the district administration failed to uphold an earlier agreement regarding the recovery of the missing. Despite severe cold, women and children continued the sit-in through the night.
According to protesters, during talks held with the district administration last week, officials assured them that the missing persons, especially the women, would be recovered. The sit-in was briefly suspended but resumed when no progress was made.
The four missing individuals have been identified as Hani Baloch, Hair Nisa, Fareed Ijaz and Mujahid Dilwash. The two women were allegedly forcibly disappeared from Hub Chowki, while the two men were taken from the Tejaban area of Kech district. One of the women is eight months pregnant.
Protesters also rejected social media claims made by pro-state handles that the individuals had been involved in planning a suicide attack.
They said that while people elsewhere are marking the New Year, women and children in Balochistan are compelled to stand on the road in freezing temperatures to demand information about their loved ones.
Human rights organizations have repeatedly expressed concern over enforced disappearances in Balochistan, calling it a long-standing and deeply sensitive issue.
In a statement, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) said families have blocked the CPEC route near Karki in Tejaban despite “extreme cold”, adding that “mothers, sisters, elders and children remain on the road demanding the safe recovery of their relatives”. The group said the sit-in would continue until all four members are released.
The BYC appealed to residents of Kech and surrounding areas to raise their voices against enforced disappearances and urged international humanitarian organizations to take notice of what it described as the “illegal abduction of Baloch women and men”.