University Professor and His Brother Forcibly Disappeared in Quetta
SHAAL (QUETTA): Concerns are mounting after the reported enforced disappearance of Dr. Usman Qazi, Assistant Professor in the Pakistan Studies Department at the University of Balochistan, and his younger brother Jibran Ahmed, an MPhil Economics scholar at BUITEMS.
According to family members, both were taken by Pakistani security forces from their residence in Quetta on 12 August 2025. Since then, their whereabouts remain unknown.
On 17 August, Pakistani authorities conducted a televised media trial showing Professor Usman allegedly confessing to being a member and facilitator of pro-freedom militants. The state-appointed Chief Minister of Balochistan, Surfaraz Bugti, was quick to claim credit for the arrest, stating it was done to “save Pakistan from a disaster” ahead of Independence Day.
However, Baloch human rights activists, social media campaigners, and independent analysts argue that Pakistan has a long-standing record of torturing and coercing detainees to extract forced confessions. They maintain that Professor Qazi’s case fits this pattern.
Rights groups emphasise that crimes should be proved through judicial processes based on evidence, not through torture and media trials.
Article 14 of the Constitution of 1973 guarantees the sanctity of the home and the dignity of individuals—protections that appear to have been disregarded in this case. The abduction of an educationist and a student is widely being seen as a direct attack on personal liberty and on the institutions of learning in Balochistan.
Civil society activists have urged the public, human rights defenders, and the academic community to raise their voices against enforced disappearances and the misuse of media trials to legitimise coerced confessions.
Usman Qazi has been handed over to the notorious CTD (Counter Terrorism Department) for 14 days of physical remand. The CTD is infamous for staged encounters, extrajudicial arrests and committing crimes in the names of security measures.
