BYC Reports Deaths of a Teacher and Two Farmers in Balochistan
SHAAL (QUETTA): The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has reported the deaths of three Baloch civilians, including a government teacher and two farmers, in separate incidents in Balochistan, alleging that security personnel or state-backed armed groups were involved.
The BYC said 28-year-old Abdul Khaliq, a government Junior Vernacular Teacher from Gowani in Gresha, Khuzdar, was killed at his home on the night of September 21. According to the organisation, armed men entered the house while Khaliq was sleeping and shot him.
The organisation alleged that Khaliq’s family members pursued the attackers after the shooting and that the assailants fled into the premises of a state-backed armed group.
Khaliq was described as an educator who taught in remote areas and served communities facing shortages of teachers and other educational resources.
The organisation also reported that the bodies of two farmers, 31-year-old Safar Khan and 33-year-old Munir Ahmad, were found at Mashkay Cross on September 17.
According to the BYC, Safar Khan, a resident of Kohdask in Khuzdar, was forcibly disappeared from Basima, Washuk, on March 3. His family remained without information about his whereabouts for six months before his body was discovered.
The BYC said Munir Ahmad, also from Kohdask, was taken from Basima on February 18. The organisation said his family spent approximately seven months searching for him before his body was found at Mashkay Cross.
The BYC said that both men were forcibly disappeared and later killed without being presented before a court or being afforded due process.
The organisation said the three cases reflected a continuing pattern of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan. It called on international human-rights organisations, the United Nations, journalists and civil-society groups to investigate the deaths and establish accountability.
The BYC has called for independent investigations into the cases and urged authorities to provide information about the circumstances surrounding the disappearances and deaths.
