Balochistan: Bullet-Riddled Body Recovered Amid Wave of Enforced Disappearances
SHAAL (QUETTA): The discovery of a bullet-ridden body in Balochistan’s Washuk district has intensified concerns over a recent wave of enforced disappearances across Balochistan. Human rights groups continue to raise alarms about the ongoing crisis, which has plagued the region for decades.
The body was identified as 38-year-old Muhammad Azam, a shopkeeper and trader from Patak Qadir Abad in Basima, Balochistan. Pakistani forces abducted Azam on September 11, 2025, from his shop.
According to eyewitnesses, he was loaded into a military vehicle and disappeared without a trace. After nearly 25 days of silence, his lifeless, bullet-riddled body was discovered on October 6 in the Gowargi Nag area of Washuk district.
Local residents and rights activists have condemned the killing as part of a broader pattern of extrajudicial executions linked to enforced disappearances in the region.
In a related and escalating pattern, four more cases of enforced disappearances have been reported from Balochistan in recent days:
Mehran Ashraf, an 18-year-old student originally from Absar in Kech district, was taken by Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel on October 1 from his residence in Block 10, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi. His family says he was in the city for his education.
Rehmat Halko, a motor workshop owner in Zor Bazar, Turbat, was abducted by masked men on October 5. Witnesses say the perpetrators arrived in vehicles and forcibly took him away.
Mumtaz Saleh was detained from his home in Gulshanabad, Turbat, on October 2 by Pakistani forces, according to local sources.
Hamid Baloch was abducted on October 5 from the village of Dando in the Kulanch area of Gwadar district. His whereabouts remain unknown.
These incidents have added to the growing list of ongoing disappearances Balochistan, where human rights organisations estimate that thousands of people, including students, teachers, political activists, lawyers and other innocent civilians, have gone missing over the years.
Some are never heard from again; others, like Muhammad Azam, are later found dead under suspicious and violent circumstances.
For decades, Balochistan has grappled with a human rights and political crisis. Enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings by Pakistani army, ISI and their local collaborator known as ‘death squads’ have become tragically routine, with families left in anguish and perpetrators rarely held accountable.
Human rights groups are continually calling for immediate, independent investigations into these cases and for the Pakistan to address the systemic state sponsored abuses in Balochistan.
