Media

Four Baloch youths killed in fake encounter in Karachi

HRCB

The Counter-Terrorism Department of Sindh Police has claimed that four alleged “terrorists” were killed during a gun battle on the night of 16 February 2026 in Karachi. Three of the victims have been identified as Jalil Noor Mohammad, Niaz Qadir Bakhsh, and Hamdan Muhammad Ali, all of whom had been forcibly disappeared from Karachi on 29 December 2025 and were later held in the custody of the CTD.

 Hamdan Muhammad Ali’s father filed a First Information Report at Pak Colony Police Station on 1 January 2026, after another police station refused to register the complaint regarding his son’s abduction. The three men were kept in incommunicado detention for several days before being produced before a court, where the CTD alleged that they had been arrested on the basis of an “intelligence report” claiming their affiliation with an armed group and the alleged recovery of explosives. On this basis, the CTD repeatedly obtained extensions of police remand.

 The most recent remand period was set to expire on 16 February 2026, and the families had expected that the detainees would be transferred to judicial custody, enabling regular visits and legal proceedings. Instead, all three men were killed that same night in what the police describe as an “intelligence-based operation,” claiming that the detainees led them to other alleged collaborators and were killed in a shootout.

Notably, all four detainees were killed while not a single police officer was injured, a hallmark of staged encounter killings that have been repeatedly documented in Sindh and Balochistan. This pattern, detainees being taken out of custody shortly before remand expiry and then killed in alleged gunfights, is widely recognised as a method of extrajudicial execution used to bypass judicial scrutiny.

 These killings occurred amid a sharp escalation of state violence against the Baloch population. In February 2026 alone, at least 43 ethnic Baloch individuals have been extrajudicially killed by Pakistani forces or state-backed armed groups in Balochistan and Karachi.

 The Human Rights Council of Balochistan categorically rejects the CTD’s version of events and holds the Sindh Police responsible for the custodial execution of Jalil Noor Mohammad, Niaz Qadir Bakhsh, and Hamdan Muhammad Ali. We demand:

  1. A transparent and independent judicial inquiry into the killings;
  2. Criminal prosecution of all CTD officials involved in the illegal detention and execution of the victims;
  3. Immediate disclosure of the identity of the fourth victim

 

HRCB

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.