A young man who had previously been subjected to enforced disappearance was shot dead along with his cousin, a Karachi University student, allegedly by government-backed militias in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district on Friday.
According to local sources, 29-year-old Naeem Shay, son of Shay Mohammad and a resident of Tehsil Gresha, was killed alongside his cousin, 19-year-old Iqbal Hakeem, in the Gresha Nadagi area.
Sources added that both were on their way to visit relatives when they were intercepted by members of a government-backed militia, locally referred to as a “death squad,” and shot dead on the spot.
Naeem had previously been forcibly disappeared in 2022, when he was detained along with his father, brother and three other relatives by Pakistani armed personnel and intelligence agencies. The family members were released months later.
His cousin, Iqbal Hakeem, was a second-semester student in the BS Education Department at Karachi University. Activists said he had long been harassed and placed under surveillance by the same groups and had been forced to abandon his studies due to persistent threats.
Rights groups and local activists condemned the killings, describing them as part of a wider pattern of extrajudicial violence in Balochistan. They said enforced disappearances and the extrajudicial killings of Baloch youth have become a recurring issue in the region.
Meanwhile, in the Buleda area of Kech district, unidentified assailants attacked the house of a man named Peer Bakhsh late Friday night. Local sources said the attackers were members of an alleged state-backed “death squad” who arrived on three motorcycles and threw a bomb inside the house, injuring livestock but causing no human casualties.
Earlier this month, in a similar grenade attack in Turbat, several women were injured, while other such assaults on houses have also been reported in Tump and surrounding areas.
Rights groups and activists have repeatedly accused Pakistani security forces of supporting armed militias, locally known as “death squads,” to counter the independence movement and suppress dissent in Balochistan. Pakistani authorities deny the allegations.