Quetta, Sep 7 (IANS) At least three people, including a child, were injured in a drone strike carried out by Pakistani forces in the Khadkocha area of Balochistan’s Mastung district, local media reported on Monday, citing sources.
The strike hit the Garro area of Khadkocha on Sunday, following which the injured were transferred to Nawab Ghaus Bakhsh Raisani Hospital for medical treatment.
The incident further heightened fear among local communities already bearing the brunt of military operations and movement restrictions in the region.
The intensifying “security measures” have sparked concern among local communities and rights organisations over their humanitarian consequences. Several parts of Mastung have also witnessed reported aerial and drone strikes by Pakistani forces, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries, The Balochistan Post reported.
Meanwhile, the recovery of at least six unidentified bodies from two locations in Mastung on Sunday has raised fears that they may belong to Baloch youths who had earlier been forcibly disappeared by Pakistani forces, said a leading human rights organisation.
According to Baloch Voice for Justice (BVJ), the bodies bore signs of torture and were removed from the area several hours later under the supervision of police official Abdul Rauf Baloch before being taken to a hospital.
The rights body said the bodies were subsequently transported to Quetta but were later brought back and dumped at the same location along the main highway. A few hours later, the bodies were reportedly loaded into a Zambad vehicle and taken to an unknown location.
Expressing grave concern over the incident, the BVJ said that “innocent civilians, particularly young people, are allegedly being forcibly disappeared from their homes, educational institutions, and public roads in Balochistan and taken to secret detention facilities, where they are subjected to severe torture.’
It further alleged that many forcibly disappeared persons are killed in custody and that attempts are subsequently made to portray their deaths as the result of staged encounters.
The BVJ called on the United Nations and international human rights organisations to conduct an immediate and transparent investigation into the six unidentified bodies, establish their identities, and determine whether they were among those who had previously been forcibly disappeared.
–IANS
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