Rights body flags alarming rise in enforced disappearances of women in Balochistan by Pakistani forces

Quetta, Dec 19 (IANS) The Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB) has expressed grave concern over a disturbing escalation in the enforced disappearance of Baloch women at the hands of Pakistani forces across Balochistan.

The rights body alleged that the abduction of women by Pakistani forces has increasingly become a "routine instrument of repression" in the province. According to the HRCB, nine cases of enforced disappearance of Baloch women were documented in 2025.

“These cases reveal a disturbing pattern of collective punishment and the systematic erosion of legal protections. Women from diverse backgrounds, including students, health workers, housewives, and human rights activists, have been abducted through house raids and late-night operations. Several victims were subjected to repeated disappearances and torture, while at least one case resulted in custodial death,” it stated.

The rights body noted that the involvement of Pakistan’s security agencies, including the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Frontier Corps (FC), and Military Intelligence (MI), underscored the institutional nature of these violations.

This escalation, the rights body said, comes amid a broader pattern of mass enforced disappearances of Baloch men that has persisted over the past two decades.

It added that thousands of Baloch men, ranging from children and teenagers to elderly individuals, have been subjected to enforced disappearance or extrajudicial killing under the so-called “kill and dump” policy.

“For decades, enforced disappearances in Balochistan overwhelmingly targeted men, leaving women to bear the social, economic, and psychological consequences within their families and communities. In 2025, however, women themselves have increasingly become direct targets, marking a significant shift in the pattern of state repression,” the HRCB stated.

“As women assumed public roles as family providers and visible participants in peaceful resistance and rights-based advocacy, their prominence exposed them to retaliation. Enforced disappearance has thus been extended to women as a deliberate mechanism of punishment and intimidation, intended to suppress dissent, silence other women, and deepen collective suffering in a region already devastated by mass disappearances,” it stressed.

HRCB asserted that the targeting of women is neither incidental nor isolated but reflected a calculated effort to undermine women-led resistance by silencing activists and pressuring their families and communities across Balochistan.

“Raids are conducted openly, families are coerced into silence, and effective legal remedies remain largely inaccessible. The sustained absence of accountability has allowed these practices to become embedded in routine security operations, transforming the enforced disappearance of women from an exceptional abuse into a normalised instrument of state control,” the rights body mentioned.