Human Rights Groups Accuse Pakistan of Enforced Disappearances and Killings

Human rights organizations report a surge of state-led atrocities in Balochistan, including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings carried out by the Military of Pakistan and the Counter Terrorism Department of Pakistan. Between June and July 2026, security forces allegedly abducted four civilians, including 16-year-old student Rizwana Baloch, who was taken from Quetta on June 28, and others including 80-year-old farmer Azam Baloch and student Zahid Baloch between July 5 and 17.

Recent reports indicate a late-night raid in the Jiwani area of Gwadar district, where forces disappeared four young men—Mohsin, Yaqoob, Haseeb, and Sameer—and physically abused women and children. Concurrent with these abductions, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee reported the July 16 extrajudicial killing of 27-year-old laborer Bada Bugti in Mastung. Additionally, authorities recovered seven other bodies across the Panjgur, Kalat, and Kech districts, several of whom suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

Rights groups including Paank, the Baloch Women Forum, and the Baloch Yakjehti Committee have condemned these actions as colonial tactics and state repression. They characterize the targeting of women and minors as a deliberate instrument of fear and collective punishment. These organizations are demanding that the Government of Pakistan disclose the whereabouts of the missing persons and initiate independent international investigations into the killings.