Pakistani forces forcibly disappeared the father and two uncles of Dr Naseem Baloch, chairman of the Baloch National Movement (BNM), during pre-dawn raids in the Hub Chowki area of Balochistan on Monday, local sources said.
According to sources, multiple houses were raided at around 3:30 a.m. Retired Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Bakhsh Sajidi, his brother Naeem Sajidi, and former Chief Engineer of Sui Gas Balochistan, Rafeeq Baloch, were taken into custody and transferred to an undisclosed location.
Family members said no legal warrants were presented during the operation and that the men were moved to an unknown location. Their whereabouts have remained unknown since the raid.
BNM’s Rights Wing Condemns ‘Collective Punishment’
Paank, the human rights wing of the BNM, described the detentions as part of an ongoing pattern of “collective punishment and enforced disappearances” in Balochistan. In a statement, it said the three men were “forcibly disappeared without legal justification,” noting that all were close relatives of Dr Naseem Baloch.
British Member of Parliament and former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said there had been a “worrying escalation of repression” in Balochistan.
In a post on X, he wrote, “There’s been a worrying escalation of repression by Pakistan forces in Balochistan, including the abduction of 3 prominent members of the community. Naeem Sajidi, Muhammad Bakhsh Sajidi & Rafeeq Baloch. It’s critical the international community presses Pakistan to release them.”
Separately, Pakistani forces detained Umar Baloch, a student and son of Abdul Rauf, from the Burma Hotel area in Quetta in the early hours of Monday, local sources said. He was taken to an undisclosed location and has remained missing since.
In the coastal city of Gwadar, a 25-year-old fisherman, Meeran, son of Asghar and a resident of Sehrabi Ward, was allegedly forcibly disappeared at around 9:30 a.m.
VBMP Protest Camp Enters 6,067th Day
Meanwhile in Quetta, the protest camp organised by the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons against enforced disappearances entered its 6,067th day outside the Quetta Press Club.
Visitors from various walks of life attended the camp to express solidarity with families of the missing.
VBMP Chairman Nasrullah Baloch criticised the government for failing to implement the law on enforced disappearances, which he said had been introduced as a solution but had instead “provided legal cover for the extrajudicial actions of state institutions.”
He said the law required detainees to be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours, held only in designated detention centres, and allowed family visits, but “none of these commitments have been honoured.”
Nasrullah Baloch said hundreds of Baloch had been detained since the passage of the law, yet “not a single one has been presented before any magistrate, nor have families been given information about their loved ones.”
He said VBMP had warned that the act would not be implemented and that enforced disappearances would increase. “Those concerns are now proving true,” he said, adding that state institutions had “accelerated” detentions under the banner of national security.
He demanded that the government produce all disappeared persons in court, allow family meetings, and honour the commitments made in the act. Otherwise, he said, the VBMP “reserves the right to pursue legal action against the government.”