Quetta, Sep 19 (IANS) As violence against civilians continues to mount across Balochistan, leading human rights organisations have brought to light the extrajudicial killing of a civilian and the enforced disappearance of three others by Pakistani forces in Balochistan.
The human rights body, Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), revealed that 47-year-old farmer Alam Khan was extrajudicially killed by Pakistan-backed death squads in Khuzdar district of the province on September 17.
According to the rights body, Alam Khan and his friends were returning home after attending a wedding when members of a death squad opened fire on them. Alam Khan was killed on the spot, while his friend Barkat Azeem sustained serious injuries.
“For Baloch people, safety is becoming impossible. A marriage gathering, a street, or even one’s own home should never become a place where a civilian can be targeted and killed. No people should be forced to live under such fear. The continued pattern of enforced disappearances, target killings, and fake encounters constitutes a grave human rights crisis. These violations must not be normalised, and the absence of accountability must not be allowed to continue,” the BYC stated.
The rights body called on the United Nations, UN human rights mechanisms and international human rights organisations to take immediate notice of the dire situation in Balochistan.
Highlighting the atrocities against civilians, Paank, the human rights department of Baloch National Movement (BNM), strongly condemned the enforced disappearance of three youths by Pakistani forces from different regions in the province.
The rights body said that Pakistani forces raided a house in Reco village of Kech district on the evening of September 17 and forcibly disappeared two cousins, Safar Baloch and Abdul Raziq, with their whereabouts remaining unknown.
In a separate incident, 20-year-old student Kifayat Baloch was forcibly disappeared by Pakistani forces from outside the University of Balochistan in Quetta on September 15.
Paank noted that his whereabouts remain unknown, and he has been denied access to his family, legal counsel, and due process.
“The enforced disappearance of a student is a grave violation of fundamental human rights and places him at serious risk of torture, ill-treatment, and other abuses,” it stressed.
Amid escalating violence, eight bullet-riddled bodies were recovered from separate locations across Balochistan’s Panjgur and Gwadar districts on Friday, with residents alerting authorities after discovering the victims, Pakistani daily Dawn reported.
According to the police, five of the bodies were found in the Gwargo area of Panjgur, where locals informed the administration after spotting the bodies dumped in the area.
Additionally, the other three bodies were recovered from Kuldan in the Jiwani sub-division of Gwadar district.
The three deceased were subsequently identified, and their bodies were handed over to their respective families following the completion of legal formalities.
The victims were Ahsan, a resident of Jiwani; Nadil, from Panwan in Jiwani; and Hassan Rafiq, a resident of Turbat.
Citing sources, Dawn reported that one of the deceased, Ahsan, had been taken into custody from his home in Jiwani on the night of January 21 this year and had remained missing ever since.
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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