Quetta, Sep 30 (IANS) A leading human rights organisation has highlighted enforced disappearances and targeted killings across Balochistan, allegedly carried out by Pakistani forces. According to the Human Rights Department's report of Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a total of 507 individuals were subjected to enforced disappearance by Pakistani state authorities, security agencies and state-backed death squads in Balochistan in the first six months of this year. Among these, 150 were released after short-term detention, 32 were killed while in custody, and 303 remain missing, with no information shared with their families about their fate or whereabouts.

The victims in enforced disappearances included 44 minors and over 20 women. Quetta and Kech recorded the highest number of documented cases of enforced disappearance in Balochistan.

The BYC alleged that paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) and the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) were involved in most of these cases.

The BYC alleged that several state institutions were involved in the enforced disappearances and linked paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) in 180 cases, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) in 93 cases, the army in 42 cases, and death squads in 20 documented cases. Some other cases were perpetrated in combined operations by forces, intelligence agencies, CTD, police, and death squads.

The BYC's Human Rights Department documented 150 cases of killings of Baloch civilians, including 15 minors, during the first half of 2026. According to the BYC, Panjgur reported the highest number of killings, followed by Kech and Gwadar. The BYC alleged that state-backed death squads were the major perpetrator of killings followed by Frontier Corps (FC) and army.

In the report, the BYC alleged that Pakistani authorities have used various methods to torture, intimidate and break the will of Baloch activists, Mahrang Baloch and Bebarg Baloch (specially-abled person), who have remained in detention since March last year. The BYC said that both of them have been denied access to basic medical care several times by the prison authorities at the behest of intelligence agencies.

According to the report, the human rights situation in Balochistan has deteriorated during the first six months of 2026, with fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, movement, and the right to protest, severely restricted. The BYC alleged that peaceful protests by human rights organisations, families of enforced disappearance victims, and political groups were frequently met with harassment, intimidation, arrests, and the use of force by state authorities.

--IANS

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