Two Baloch female students who had reportedly been forcibly disappeared from Quetta were presented by Pakistani forces and Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) officials at the Quetta Press Club on Saturday, where authorities accused them of links to Baloch armed organisations.
The students, identified as Khadija Baloch, daughter of Peer Jan, and Safia Baloch, daughter of Abdul Khaliq, were reportedly made to hold a press conference after remaining missing since their alleged detention in separate incidents in April and August.
According to reports, Safia, a 20-year-old student from Basima in Washuk, was taken into custody during a raid on a house at around 1am on August 23, 2026, and transferred to an undisclosed location. Her family subsequently alleged that CTD and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) personnel were involved in her disappearance.
Khadija, a BS nursing student, was reportedly detained by CTD personnel from the girls’ hostel at Bolan Medical College (BMC) in Quetta on the night of April 22 and taken to an undisclosed location.
Her family and Baloch students subsequently staged a sit-in outside the college for several days, demanding information about her whereabouts and her release.
Meanwhile, Baloch Voice for Justice (BVJ) condemned what it described as the enforced disappearance, secret detention and torture of Baloch women, followed by their presentation before the media for “scripted confession press conferences”.
In a statement, the rights group alleged that women were held for prolonged periods in secret detention centres, denied contact with their families and access to lawyers, and then compelled to deliver a prescribed narrative before the media. It said these practices violated their dignity, freedom of expression and right to due process.
“Bringing Baloch women before the media in this manner and making them deliver scripted confessions must not be met with silence. This inhumane practice is becoming routine,” the statement said.
The organisation said enforced disappearances, unlawful detention and coerced media appearances had severely affected Baloch women’s education, social lives, futures and fundamental freedoms.
It accused the state of using force, enforced disappearances and “scripted confession press conferences” to conceal its security failures and political crisis, while attempting to mislead the world through an “artificial narrative”.
Baloch Voice for Justice called on international human rights organisations, relevant United Nations bodies, women’s rights organisations and human rights defenders to speak out against these practices and demand answers from the institutions responsible.
“The fundamental human rights of Baloch women are not a concession but their internationally recognised entitlement,” it said, adding that silence over such violations would enable further injustice.
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Confession or Coercion? Rahima Bibi Case Raises Due Process Concerns in Balochistan — TBP Report