Quetta, July 25: The Baloch Women Forum (BWF) expressed grave concern over the escalating enforced disappearances of civilians, including women and children, allegedly carried out by Pakistani forces in Balochistan, warning that the practice has become one of the most alarming human rights issues of the 21st century.
The remarks came following a July 21 incident in the Killi Kongarh area in Mastung district of Balochistan, where security forces personnel raided a house and abducted six family members. The victims were identified as 33-year-old Bibi Rafia, her three young children aged 3 months, 4 years, and 6 years, her 40-year-old brother Muhammad Arif, and her 18-year-old niece Bibi Nida.
Condemning the pattern of enforced disappearance across the province, the BWF said: “The recent Mastung incident is not just a tragedy for one family but a link in this broader chain of enforced disappearances in Balochistan, about which local human rights activists, affected families, and various organisations have continuously raised their voices.”
“Numerous families have been waiting for years for the return of their loved ones; numerous victims have passed away while waiting for their loved ones; yet this policy of coercion shows no signs of ending,” it added. The BWF said that international law explicitly recognises women and children as categories warranting special protection.
“When it comes to a mother, the situation becomes even more serious, because the disapearance of a mother is not merely the disappearance of an individual—it plunges the entire family, especially minor children, into severe psychological, economic, and social crises.
If even infants or minor children are deprived of their freedom, the matter takes on an even more grave nature, which has now assumed an even more serious form in Balochistan today,” it noted. (IANS)
