Quetta, Feb 1 (IANS) Detained Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) central organiser Mahrang Baloch has stated that the enforced disappearances of Baloch women showcase a dangerous escalation in state violence, indicating that enforced disappearance is being used as an organised and gendered strategy, local media reported.
Mahrang Baloch emphasised that the Baloch people have been treated as a suspect and marginalised population for decades, as authorities have used coercion, fear, and force instead of inclusion and constitutional rights. She noted that enforced disappearance, which was previously directed at Baloch men, has now expanded to include women and girls, The Balochistan Post reported.
Baloch noted that those impacted include students, underage girls, pregnant women, and persons with disabilities, with many of them having no link with any political activity. She stressed that this development showcases that enforced disappearance, which was considered a security-related practice for a long time, has now broader social and political dimensions.
She stated that Baloch women are being directly targeted to weaken the social foundations of resistance as the women began searching for their missing loved ones, holding protests and questioning courts and state institutions.
She emphasised that repression and identity-based violence do not result in silence or submission, but instead increase political awareness, collective solidarity, and resistance, The Balochistan Post reported. She said the enforced disappearances of Baloch women should be seen as a systematic practice aimed at controlling society through fear.
On January 26, a leading human rights organisation stated that at least 10 civilians were forcibly disappeared in Balochistan by Pakistani forces amid a growing wave of enforced disappearances across the province.
Condemning the incidents, Paank, the Baloch National Movement’s Human Rights Department, mentioned that Eido Bakhsh, a resident of Pir Koh in Dera Bugti district of Balochistan, was forcibly disappeared on January 24 by Pakistan’s Frontier Corps (FC) personnel.
In a separate incident, on the same day, 23-year-old Suleman Baloch, a student from Tump region in Kech district of the province, was forcibly disappeared from his home during a raid by the Pakistani forces. Citing residents, Paank stated that personnel of the FC and the Pakistani Army were involved in the abduction.
The rights body also strongly condemned the enforced disappearance of Saeedullah on January 23 from the Chatkan area of Panjgur district by the Pakistan Army. According to Paank, Hafiz Nazir Ahmed Lehri, a government employee, was forcibly taken on January 1 during a raid on his residence on Sariab Road in the provincial capital Quetta, by Pakistani forces.
Paank also brought to light the enforced disappearance of another three civilians — Yaseen, Basheer, and Abdullah–during a house raid by the Pakistan Army on January 24 in the Dasht area of Kech.
The rights body also highlighted the enforced disappearance of Wajo Jan Muhammad on the same day from the Josak area of Kech by a Pakistan-backed death squad. The rights body, citing local sources, stated that the perpetrators abducted Muhammad at gunpoint and took him away along with his vehicle.
Paank strongly criticised the enforced disappearance of Nako Ameer, an elderly civilian, on January 24 during a raid by Pakistani forces on his home in the Talkan area of Tump region in Kech. Citing local sources, the rights body stated that Nako Ameer was taken to an undisclosed location.
Citing local sources, Paank revealed that another Baloch civilian, Saleem Ahmed, was forcibly abducted on January 9 from Main Bazar Naal in Khuzdar district of the province by personnel of the Pakistan Army.
–IANS
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