The family of Imran Ali has demanded that authorities disclose the location of his grave, exhume and identify his remains through an independent DNA examination, and return his body to relatives for burial, rejecting official claims regarding the circumstances of his death.
According to a statement issued by the family, Imran Ali was forcibly disappeared by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) in Quetta on 27 August 2025. His relatives said they received no information about his whereabouts or condition for nearly a year.
The family said that during a hearing before the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances on 6 August 2026, a police officer stated for the first time that Imran had been killed in an armed encounter on 23 May 2026.
According to the family’s account of the hearing, the officer told the commission that police had taken approximately one month to establish Imran’s identity following the incident. The officer allegedly claimed that by the time his identity had been confirmed, the body had decomposed and could not be preserved, and that he was buried without the family being informed of the location of the grave.
The family described the explanation as unacceptable.
In their statement, relatives said they later obtained a photograph of what they identified as Imran’s blood-soaked body through hospital records related to the reported date of his death. They said the photograph remains the only evidence they have received regarding his death.
According to the family, authorities have not provided a death certificate, forensic report, autopsy report, burial record or information about the location of the grave.
The family also rejected the government’s claim that Imran was killed in an armed encounter. They argued that he had already been in CTD custody for approximately 11 months before authorities claimed he had been killed.
Relatives further stated that three individuals who were subsequently released from detention had independently told the family that they had seen and met Imran while in custody. They said these accounts raise serious questions about the official version of events and warrant an independent investigation into what happened to him while he was in state custody.
The family reiterated calls made by United Nations experts for a prompt, independent and impartial investigation into the circumstances surrounding Imran Ali’s detention, death and burial, and urged that those responsible be held accountable.
“We demand that the authorities immediately disclose the exact location of Imran Ali’s grave, return his remains to the family, and allow an independent examination to establish the facts,” the statement said.
No official response to the family’s latest demands was available at the time of publication.