Quetta, March 30 (IANS) A leading human rights organisation on Monday highlighted escalating abuses by Pakistani forces across Balochistan, documenting 87 extrajudicial killings and 234 cases of enforced disappearances during the month of February.
In its latest report, the Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB) recorded 87 killings across Balochistan last month, including 82 men and five women, while the identities of 15 victims could not be confirmed.
“Of the total killings, the largest share resulted from indiscriminate firing, accounting for 30 cases. Targeted killings and custodial killings each accounted for 17 cases, while fake encounters were responsible for 15 cases. Alleged encounters accounted for 8 cases, while drone strikes and mortar shelling were recorded in one case each,” the HRCB report stated.
As per the findings, Pakistan’s Frontier Corps (FC) was responsible for the majority of killings, with 44 out of 87; the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) was linked to 19 cases, while a state-backed death squad was responsible for 13.
In addition, several killings were carried out by unknown perpetrators, while Pakistani intelligence agencies were linked to 3 cases.
According to the HRCB, 30 previously disappeared individuals who were in the custody of Pakistani security forces were extrajudicially killed in February.
These killings, it said, were carried out by security forces and their affiliated death squads, either in “staged fake encounters or while the victims were in custody”.
The report noted that among the 234 enforced disappearances at the hands of Pakistani forces, 203 victims were male, and one was female.
Only 37 of those taken have reappeared, 2 were shifted to jail on “false charges”, while the majority remain without a trace.
It added that out of the total enforced disappearances, 100 involve individuals whom the Pakistani government claimed to have detained as “suspects”, yet no details have been disclosed regarding their identities or current status.
“The most common mode of abduction is detention, accounting for 136 out of 234 cases, which represents a clear majority. House raids are the second most frequent method, with 92 cases, indicating that a significant number of abductions occur directly from victims’ homes. In contrast, abductions at check-posts (5 cases) and through summons to camps (1 case) are relatively rare,” the HRCB mentioned.
Among perpetrators, the rights body said that the CTD was identified as the leading alleged perpetrator, linked to 123 of the 234 cases, accounting for more than half of all incidents. The FC followed with 65 cases, while Pakistani intelligence agencies were linked to 41 cases and death squads were implicated in 5 cases.
Balochistan continues to reel under relentless atrocities by the Pakistani forces, marked by enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of Baloch civilians at an unprecedented level.
–IANS
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