Balochistan: 20 disappeared, 29 killed, FC soldier sexually abuses teenage boy

Twenty-one cases of abduction and enforced disappearance were reported from various areas of Balochistan during April – one of whom was released later – while 38 people were killed during the month. On April 21, a teenaged boy MA was raped by personnel of the Frontier Corps. The boy was rushed to hospital in Turbat while the local populace blocked the flow of traffic on Turbat-Panjgur highway in protest. Eventually, the soldier was handed over to the local police for further investigation.

On April 01, the personnel of the Frontier Corps picked up six persons from Kilkor area of district Panjgur during a military operation. The abductees are identified as Ashraf Kunar, Wahid Bakhsh, Siddique Faqir, Samad Ghazzu, Rashid, and Essa. The operation continued for five days and the forces allegedly burnt down many houses in the villages.

On April 02, the forces raided a house in Nezarabad village of district Kech and whisked away 16-year-old Waleed son of Anwar.

On April 03, two brothers, Tahir and Bibagr, sons of Hamid, were abducted and disappeared by the personnel of the FC during a raid in Kolaho village of Tump, district Kech.

The same day, military forces launched an operation in the Kahan area of district Kohlu where Jandu and his son Wali Dad were shot and killed. Another son of Jandu, Ghalaind, 15, was critically injured and whisked away along with his uncle, whose name could not be confirmed.

On April 4, the security forces broke into Ghulam Kubdani’s house in Kubdani Mohalla district Kharan, involuntarily disappeared his son, Baba Kubdani, a tailor by profession. Many members of this family have already gone missing whose whereabouts remain unknown.

Separately, on the same day, two people Ata and Hazaro were taken away from Lehri, district Sibi, after being inhumanly tortured and brutally beaten by the security forces. Whereas, two others, Hameed and Abdul Haleem, were killed.

On April 6, the forces arrested a teenage boy, Amir, a resident of Hasadi Dasht, from Nayabad area of district Gwadar, and shifted him to an undisclosed location.

On April 8, Salahuddin, a resident of Bonistan, was abducted from the Gwargo area of district Panjgur while he was on his way to go for a picnic with friends. He had previously disappeared along with Saleem Omaid, who was later killed by the security forces in a fake encounter.

On April 9, Naeem was abducted by Pakistani security forces during a raid in Mand area of district Kech.

On the bright side, Mansoor Azad, a poet and a resident of Mand, district Kech, who had disappeared on 11 April returned home. He had been abducted on the 1st of April by the security forces and intelligence agencies from Karachi, Sindh.

On April 19, the forces forcefully whisked away Maqbool from Chitkan Panjgur.

On April 23, two residents of district Kech, Wasim Shahdad and Zahid Wajid, were illegally detained and disappeared by the military forces from the Shapuk area of district Kech.

Sohail and Faisal, residents of Shahrak area of district Kech, went missing on 31 April. According to sources, they had gone on hunting and never came back.

Killed:

Each month, a large number of target-killing incidents are recorded and most of them are carried out by the state-sponsored death squads—operating inside Balochistan and across the border in neighbouring countries Iran and Afghanistan to counter and silence the dissidents.

During April, at least 18 targeted killings and three incidents of honour killing were recorded, while five lost their lives in a bomb blast in Quetta. Three people were killed by militants of the Baloch Liberation Army and two by the Balochistan Liberation Front in different areas of Balochistan. While four militants of the Baloch Freedom Tigers and the United Baloch Army were killed during skirmishes between security forces and the armed groups. Moreover, eight other people were shot dead by unknown militants in different areas.

Whereas, four refugees, Ghulam Nabi, Jangi, Saka, and Amir Jan, who were involved in pro-independence political activism, were assassinated in Spin Boldak, Afghanistan, by unknown militants. Their families accused Pakistan’s ISI of being behind the attacks. Such target killings have taken place in the past too, where women and children have also been killed.

A decomposed dead body was found near the Bostan area of Pishin and was immediately shifted to the hospital for identification. The body was identified to be that of Ahmadullah son of Baazgul.

Human Rights Council of Balochistan (Hakkpaan) is a non-profit and non-partisan human rights group based in Balochistan and Sweden. It collects reports from Balochistan, a region Pakistan government does not allow any media and HR group to visit and report. Human rights violations in Balochistan is not a new phenomenon, but it got its worst levels after the Military coup de tat of Pakistan in 1999. Thousands of Baloch have been reported missing, hundreds killed in fake encounters and so-called kill and dump policy of the military. HRCB collects the data from Balochistan itself, through its network of volunteers and supporters, organizes and reports them to the human rights mechanisms of the world.