The family of 19-year-old student Laiba Sattar, who has been missing from Balochistan’s Kalat district for more than six months, has rejected a video in which she says she married of her own free will, alleging that the statement was recorded under coercion.
The video emerged on social media on Friday. Her relatives demanded that she be brought forward so her safety and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance could be established.
“We reject this video and demand that she be brought forward,” the family said.
In an audio statement, Laiba’s paternal aunt, Rukhsana Aziz, accused Islam Nechari of abducting her niece and killing her father, Abdul Sattar, after he refused a marriage proposal. She further alleged that Nechari had the backing of Shafiq Mengal.
Also Read | State’s deadly weapon, Shafiq Mengal – The Balochistan Post report
Rukhsana questioned how the claim of a voluntary marriage could be reconciled with Abdul Sattar’s killing and called for Laiba’s recovery and a transparent investigation.
The family had previously addressed a press conference at the Quetta Press Club, alleging that Laiba was abducted after her father refused the proposal. Relatives subsequently blocked the Quetta–Karachi highway in Kalat and ended their protest after district authorities reportedly assured them that Nechari would be arrested and Laiba recovered.
Despite those assurances, the family said it had received no information about Laiba’s whereabouts or condition.
The case drew renewed attention on Thursday when the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) published her photograph, identifying her as an FSc student who had gone missing from Kalat at around 9 p.m. on March 29, 2026.
The organisation alleged that an armed group it described as a “death squad” was involved in her disappearance. Baloch rights groups and activists use the term for armed groups they accuse of operating with the backing or protection of Pakistani state institutions.
Read More | 19-Year-Old Student ‘Forcibly Disappeared’ in Kalat, BYC Says
Gwadar lawmaker Hidayat ur Rehman also raised Laiba’s case in the Balochistan Assembly, alleging that influential individuals were involved in her abduction and criticising the authorities for failing to secure her recovery and arrest those responsible.
The family’s rejection of the video follows a similar dispute in the case of Asma Jattak in Khuzdar.
Her family alleged that she was abducted in February 2025 after they refused a marriage proposal from a gunman of former Balochistan chief minister Sanaullah Zehri.
Also Read | Balochistan Lawmaker Accuses Sanaullah Zehri of Patronising Asma Jattak’s Father’s Killers
Following her abduction, a video circulated on social media in which Asma appeared alongside Zahoor Jamalzai, the principal suspect in her case, and said she had accompanied him voluntarily. After her recovery, however, Asma said she had been forced to record the statement under threats that her father and brothers would be killed.
Asma returned to her family, but the threats allegedly continued. Her father, retired schoolteacher Master Inayatullah Jattak, was shot dead near his home in Khuzdar on August 4, 2026, hours after she released another video appealing for protection.