19-Year-Old Student ‘Forcibly Disappeared’ in Kalat, BYC Says

A 19-year-old female student has been missing from Balochistan’s Kalat district for more than six months, with the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) alleging that an armed group described as a “death squad” was responsible for her disappearance.

According to the organisation, Laiba Sattar, daughter of Abdul Sattar, is an FSc student who went missing at around 9 p.m. on March 29, 2026.

The BYC identified a group it described as a “death squad” as responsible for her alleged disappearance. The term is widely used by Baloch rights groups and activists to describe armed groups they accuse of operating with the backing or protection of Pakistani state institutions and targeting civilians, political activists and human rights defenders.

The case comes amid continuing reports of enforced disappearances involving Baloch women and girls across Balochistan.

In July, three women from the same family were allegedly detained by Pakistani forces at the Lak Pass checkpoint while travelling from Kalat to Quetta. The women, identified as Rafia Bibi, Tania and Javeria, returned home on August 6 after remaining missing for a week.

In another incident on August 19, two women and two young children from the same family were allegedly detained during a raid by Frontier Corps (FC) and Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel in Quetta’s Gashkori Town.

The women were identified as Umaira, 27, and Najma, 28, both daughters of Abdul Rasool, while the children were identified as eight-year-old Parisa and one-and-a-half-year-old Zakir.

The Baloch Women Forum (BWF) condemned the incident, saying the four had been denied contact with their relatives and demanding their immediate and safe recovery.

In its six-month human rights report covering January to June 2026, the BYC documented 507 alleged enforced disappearances across Balochistan, including 16 cases involving women.

More recently, the Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB) said it documented 87 cases of alleged enforced disappearance during August, including eight women and 17 teenagers. The organisation attributed most of the reported disappearances to Pakistani state institutions, particularly the Frontier Corps.