An elderly woman has been forcibly disappeared from Balochistan’s Khuzdar district, bringing the number of missing members of the same extended family to eleven, local sources said.
According to the sources, Pakistani forces raided a house in the Gazgi area of Khuzdar district on Feb. 18 and detained Hayat Bibi, an elderly woman originally from Mashkay Nokjo, before transferring her to an undisclosed location.
The sources said her husband, Fazal Kareem, and two sons — Nawaz and Dad Shah Fazal — had previously been subjected to enforced disappearance at different times from Khuzdar and the Hub Chowki area.
Pakistani forces also detained eight other members of the extended family during raids in Hub on Feb. 8, the sources said. Those taken were identified as Abdul Rab, Muhammad Rahim, Abdul Raziq and Abdul Malik, along with their sons Shahzaib, Jahangir, Shah Mir and Nauroz. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
Human rights groups say enforced disappearances of Baloch people have increased in recent weeks in Balochistan and parts of Karachi.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee and Voice for Baloch Missing Persons have called on the state to halt what they described as retaliatory operations and to ensure that all detainees are produced before courts.