Paank Documents 556 Enforced Disappearances and 227 Extrajudicial & Custodial Killings in Balochistan During First Half of 2026
Paank strongly condemns the continued and systematic pattern of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, custodial executions, and collective punishment across Balochistan during the first six months of 2026.
According to Paank’s documentation, between January and June 2026, at least 556 people were forcibly disappeared, while 227 people were subjected to extrajudicial or custodial killings. A further 171 individuals were released or recovered during the same period. This amounts to an average of approximately 93 enforced disappearances and 38 killings every month.The monthly figures demonstrate the persistent nature of these abuses. Enforced disappearances reached 109 cases in February and April, while killings rose sharply to 52 in May and 59 in June. These figures reflect not isolated incidents, but a continuing pattern of state repression affecting communities throughout Balochistan.
Paank’s documentation indicates that the Frontier Corps (FC) was implicated in more than half of the recorded disappearances, while other operations allegedly involved military intelligence agencies, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), and state-backed armed groups. Victims were reportedly taken during late-night raids on homes, at checkpoints, from workplaces and educational institutions, and from public spaces.Those targeted included students, teachers, labourers, tailors, fuel transporters, women, and children. The targeting of civilians, including minors, demonstrates the increasingly broad scope of this repression.
Paank is particularly alarmed by reports of custodial executions and staged encounters, in which individuals allegedly held in secret detention are later presented as militants killed in armed confrontations. Such practices, if established, constitute grave violations of international human rights law and the right to life.The broader pattern also includes military operations involving helicopter bombardments, destruction and burning of homes, seizure of livestock, blockades, and prolonged telecommunications shutdowns, imposing collective punishment on entire communities.Among the incidents documented during this period are the killing of academic Prof. Ghamkhwar Hayat Baloch, the judicial harassment and persecution of civil rights leaders including Dr. Mahrang Baloch, and the daytime shooting of minor Raahi Assa in Hoshab.
Paank calls on the Pakistani authorities to immediately end enforced disappearances, secret detention, extrajudicial executions, torture, collective punishment, and reprisals against human rights defenders. Every person deprived of liberty must be brought before a competent and independent judicial authority, and the families of missing persons must be informed of their whereabouts.
Paank further calls upon the international community to:
- Authorize an immediate and unhindered fact-finding mission by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to investigate the pattern of disappearances and inspect places of detention.
- Impose targeted Magnitsky-style sanctions, where legally appropriate, against officials and commanders credibly implicated in torture, enforced disappearance, extrajudicial executions, and other serious abuses.
- Protect human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, and civil society activists from arbitrary detention, travel restrictions, judicial harassment, and intimidation.
- Establish an independent international mechanism of investigation into allegations of extrajudicial executions, staged encounters, secret detention facilities, and systematic enforced disappearances.
The international community must not treat these abuses as isolated security incidents. The scale and persistence of the documented violations demand independent scrutiny, accountability, and urgent action.
Paank urges the United Nations and concerned governments to act before further lives are lost and more families are left searching for loved ones whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown.