Three men, including a journalist and a 70-year-old farmer, have reportedly been forcibly disappeared in Balochistan’s Mastung and Panjgur districts, while the bodies of two young men missing since September have been found in Kech.
Local sources said Pakistani forces raided journalist Niaz Baloch’s home in Mastung on Wednesday night and took him away in front of his family. His whereabouts and condition remain unknown.
His family and close relatives had received no information about where he was being held or his well-being, the sources said, adding that his disappearance had left them deeply distressed.
Two further cases were reported in Panjgur, where armed men took Qambar, a 30-year-old shopkeeper and son of Umeed, from his shop in Chitkan on the evening of November 1. Qambar is a resident of Parom, and reports attributed his disappearance to members of a state-backed armed group, locally referred to as a “death squad”.
A day later, Frontier Corps (FC) personnel reportedly detained Hayatan, a 70-year-old farmer and son of Aziz, in the Rish Pesh area of Parom and took him to an undisclosed location. No information about his whereabouts has emerged since.
Two Missing Men Found Dead in Tump
Meanwhile, the bodies of Jabir, son of Nazar, and Zubair, son of Dad Karim, were recovered in Tump’s Kalaho area on Thursday, about two months after Pakistani forces allegedly took them into custody.
Both were residents of Gomazi in Tump and belonged to the same family, according to local sources.
Sources said Pakistani army personnel detained the two men in Asiyan village on September 3, along with Hussain, son of Jumma. All three subsequently remained missing.
Hussain’s body was recovered on October 14. With the discovery of Jabir and Zubair’s bodies, all three men reportedly taken away that day have now been found dead.
BYC Calls for Investigation Into Turbat Killing
The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has also called for an independent investigation into the killing of Raza Ghulam Shah in Kalatuk, near Turbat, where his mother and grandmother were wounded during what the BYC described as an attempted enforced disappearance.
The attack was reported earlier this week. In its statement, BYC identified Raza as a 30-year-old resident of Baduk, Kalatuk, and said five armed men attempted to take him away in the Dabuk area at around 7 p.m. on November 9.
The committee said Raza was with his grandmother, Noor Bibi, when the men approached him. They opened fire after he resisted, killed him at the scene and wounded Noor Bibi and his mother, Zaratoon, it said.
BYC attributed the attack to members of a “death squad” and described the killing as a “brutal violation of the fundamental right to life and security”.
“The state has a legal and moral obligation to protect its citizens and ensure accountability for such violations,” the statement said.
It urged the United Nations, international human rights organisations and relevant rights mechanisms to “break their silence and take concrete action”, and demanded an independent investigation and accountability for those responsible.