March 2024 and a review of the human rights situation
Important topics:
- Enforced Disappearances and Extrajudicial Killings (Statistics)
- Protest against enforced disappearances in Kech, Gwadar, Jahoo, Sorab, and Mastung.
- Extra-judicial killing of enforced disappearances in Karachi.
Enforced Disappearances and Extrajudicial Killings (Statistics):
The increase in cases of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan is alarming. During the month of March, 24 cases of forced disappearances were reported from different areas of Balochistan. During the month of March, 21 forcibly disappeared people were released from torture cells.
Protest against enforced disappearances in Kech, Gwadar, Jhaoo, Sorab, and Mastung:
Enforced disappearances in Balochistan have become a form of constant fear and torture in Baloch society, an unending pain. Despite the protests of the Baloch people and the statements of international organisations, there is not even an iota of difference. The Pakistani army is constantly targeting those who think for the betterment of their nation.
Enforced disappearance is the only weapon of the Pakistani army against the Baloch consciousness, which it probably considers the only way to suppress the Baloch national consciousness. Despite the strong protests of the Baloch nation over several tragedies, this strategy has been continued for the past two decades. The educated class and students are the main target.
The cases that are reported on social media only show the statistics of those who have been released from enforced disappearance and illegal detention. As a result of this process, the conscious and social development of Baloch society needs deep research and scientific observation. We see Baloch youth full of life and hope being forcibly disappeared from educational institutions and streets after being arrested. They are kept in torture cells for days, months, and years. Even if a number of them are released, they are mentally paralyzed. Despite their release, their thoughts are guarded by the Pakistani army and its secret agencies. These people are forced to go into forced exile, become living corpses by helping the Pakistani army in their activities against the Baloch people in Balochistan, or remain an indifferent part of their society.
In the month of March, people were forced to take to the streets against enforced disappearances in various areas of Balochistan, including a 16-hour long protest sit-in on RCD Road against the enforced disappearance of Abdul Razzaq in the Sorab area of Balochistan. The family members of Zakir, son of Abdul Razzaq, a resident of the Kapar area of the coastal city of Pasni, stopped the Karwat in protest against the enforced disappearance by the Pakistani forces. The family members of Shoaib Ahmed and Balach who were enforced disappeared by the security forces from the Askani Bazar area of Turbat, the main city of Kech district of Balochistan. They protested near Daki Bazar and blocked the road. On March 8, the Turbat-CPEC highway was closed in protest by the family of Siraj Khudadad, a student of pathology lab sciences studying at a medical college in Sargodha, Punjab. The families of Tahir Baloch and Zafar Akbar, who were forcibly disappeared by Pakistani forces in Jhaoo Tehsil of the Awaran district of Balochistan, staged a protest on the highway leading to Awaran and Lasbela. On March 24, the Quetta Karachi highway was blocked at Mastung by the relatives of Amir Hamza, who was forcibly disappeared from Baluchistan’s Mastung district by the security forces. Due to the serious situation of forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan, there is an urgent need for human rights organizations to pay attention to these issues.
Extrajudicial killing of detained persons in Karachi:
Zaman Baloch, son of Ali Nawaz, and Shoaib Ali, son of Ghulam Ali Baba, who were forcibly disappeared by the security forces on August 15 and 17, 2023, from Singoline Lyari, a Baloch-populated area of Karachi, the capital city of Sindh province, were extra judicially killed in a fake encounter by Sind police in Mango peer near the Northern Bypass, which were later brought to the Civil Hospital. Paank’s team spoke to their relatives, and they said that a week ago, the Sindh police came to their house and said that your loved ones would be with you before Eid-ul-Fitr, but unfortunately, now both of them have been shot. We have received the dead bodies. It should be remembered that countless Baloch youths have been killed by the Sindh Police and Rangers in the Baloch-populated areas of Karachi, and countless youths are imprisoned in fabricated and fake cases.
Enforced Disappearances by Pakistani Forces
| Torture victims | 21 |
| Extrajudicial killings | 2 |
| Enforced disappearances | 24 |
Districts and areas from where Enforced disappearances are reported
| Kech | 2 |
| Gwadar | 2 |
| Awaran | 2 |
| Qalat | 1 |
| Kachi | 1 |
| Hub | 1 |
| Mastung | 3 |
| Khuzdar | 5 |
| Tauns Sharif | 1 |
| Karachi | 1 |
| Sargodha | 1 |
| Quetta | 3 |
| DG Khan | 1 |
| Total Cases | 24 |