The Human Rights Council of Balochistan received reports of the death of 19 people and enforced disappearance of 22 people in the month of July 2021. Security forces forcibly disappeared 22 people including three students and two law enforcement personnel in separate raids and operations across Balochistan. Three of them were later released while the whereabouts of the other 19 remain unknown. Moreover, 19 people were also killed in different incidents in the month of July.
Extrajudicial killings
On July 30, security forces raided a house in the Singabad area of district Kech and whisked away Ghulam Shehi and Allah Dad Jumma. The next day, the forces brought the dead body of Ghulam Shehi to a local hospital and left. His body bears severe torture signs all over. Allah Dad Jumma remains missing to date.
On July 24, militants attacked a security out-post near the Gomazi area of district Kech. In retaliation, the forces entered the town and whisked away Alim Salam from Cheri Bazar, Gomazi. Moreover, the forces also raided the house of political leader Ghulam Nabi Baloch and his relatives where a woman Kegad Abdullah died of heart failure.
Kegad’s family has been a target of the forces for a long time. During the raids, Kegad’s family was tortured and valuables were looted. During one such raid, Kegad’s sons were forcibly disappeared and kept in the dungeons for months where they were subjected to torture. One of Kegad’s sons was brutally tortured which resulted in permanent damage to his mental and physical health. He has been on medication.
Kegad was also traumatized by multiple raids and had been under medical treatment for the last few years. The sudden raid of forces triggered Kegad’s past trauma due to which she suffered a cardiac arrest and succumbed.
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) gunned down five peopleon the outskirt of Quetta city, the capital of Balochistan, on July 06. In a statement, it said that law enforcement agencies were conducting a security operation when they came under attack. In retaliation, the CTD claims, five terrorists were killed, adding that the bodies of the militants were shifted to a local hospital for identification.
So far one of the killed persons was identified as Qudratullah, a resident of Kharan district of Balochistan, who was registered with the Human Rights Council of Balochistan as a missing person on March 23, 2021. Security forces whisked him away from his hometown Kharan during a raid and has remained missing since then. This year alone, the CTD has killed at least 14 people in Balochistan, 11 of the identified so far had already been registered as disappeared persons, all of whom had been abducted by personnel of Law Enforcement Agencies.
Furthermore, a Baloch militant organization claimed responsibility for killing 3 people in the month of July.
Enforced Disappearances
On July 30, military’s secret agents and Sindh Rangers raided the house of political and social media activist Rashid Hussain. During the raid, his family was harassed and intimidated while his brother-in-law Ali Jan was arrested and shifted to an unknown location.
Rashid Hussain himself was involuntarily disappeared by the United Arab Emirates authorities in December 2018 from the Gulf country and since then his whereabouts have remained unknown. Since then, his family has been campaigning for his legal rights of communication to his family and fair trial while a special anti-terrorism court has declared him an absconder in the November 2018 Chinese consulate attack case.
Rashid’s brother-in-law Ali Jan is an employee in an anti-polio campaign organisation and had been preparing for Central Superior Services (CSS) examinations, a federal commission service exam for various civil service departments.
On July 22, a young student Mehraj Aslam was detained and shifted to an unknown location during a raid. No information about his crime and whereabouts were provided to his family.
On 17 July, forces arrested Dad Bakhsh Muhammed from Babbar Shurr, Ward No. 1 of Pasni, district Gwadar, and disappeared him. He is a tailor, and a poet.
On 10 July, FC personnel arrested and then disappeared Akbar Barkat from the Talar military check-post between Gwadar and Turbat. He is a resident of Nodez village of district Kech and a student at Naval Technical College.
On the same day, FC personnel abducted and disappeared two brothers Adil and Imran from Gramkan village of Panjgur. Meanwhile, FC personnel abducted and disappeared Aqeel Basheer, from Turbat, district Kech.
On 07 July, four young men went to picnic in Mand, district Kech. FC personnel picked all four and shifted them to an unknown location. The abductees are Sabir, Hayatan, Qadir Bakhsh and Qabus, all of them are residents of Gayab village of Mand, district Kech.
On 05 July, the members of a local army-backed death squad picked up Osama from Panjgur and shot and killed another person Mir Alam on the spot. The whereabouts of Osama have remained unknown till the time of this report.
On 02 July, personnel of the Frontier Corps detained two brothers Altaf Azad and Bahdan Maula Bakhsh from Turbat, district headquarter of Kech. Altaf is a Levies sepoy, while Bahdan works in the Airport Security Force. Their whereabouts remain unknown while the family has also not been provided with any information by authorities.
