A man forcibly disappeared for a second time from his home in Karachi on April 21, his family said, as three more detentions were reported in Balochistan and protests against enforced disappearances continued. Fouzia Shashani, a Baloch activist and a member of the Karachi chapter of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), said her brother Dad Shah Baloch was detained from their home in the Hawks Bay area by police and plainclothes personnel.
She said officers entered the house without presenting a warrant or registering a case and took him away in front of family members. Despite visiting several police stations, the family has received no information about his whereabouts, she added, according to a report in The Balochistan Post.
The family said this was the second time he had been subjected to enforced disappearance. He was previously taken from the same area on August 11, 2023, and was released on September 5 following protests by relatives. There is thus a clear established pattern of intimidation and harassment of activists who protest against highhanded behaviour of the police and other security agencies of Pakistan.
Fouzia Baloch accused state authorities of using repeated detentions to intimidate her and her family and said she would continue protesting until his whereabouts were disclosed. She also expressed fears that her brother may be harmed by those who have taken him away.
In Balochistan’s Panjgur district, Abdul Wahid, 35, was detained from his home in the Khudabadan area on April 17 at around 5:00 p.m., family members said, alleging that Pakistani troops accompanied by “death squad” members took him to an undisclosed location.
In a separate raid in Turbat’s Gokdan area in Kech district, two brothers, Nauman, 29, and Ikram, 27, were detained at around 1 AM on April 18 by Frontier Corps personnel, family members said. They said no official information had been provided regarding their whereabouts.
Meanwhile, three individuals previously reported missing were released on April 15, sources said. Najeeb Ashraf and Allah Bakhsh, detained from Surab on April 8, were released from Surab Police Station, while Bilal, detained in Karachi on the same day, was released from Saddar. All the three were kept in illegal custody for at least a week.
Separately, relatives of a 25-year-old farmer identified as Abdeen staged a sit-in protest in Kech district, blocking a section of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor highway on Tuesday to demand his recovery. Family members said he was taken into custody on April 19 during a late-night raid and has since remained missing.
Enforced disappearances remain a contentious issue in Balochistan, where families and rights groups say individuals are taken without due process. Authorities deny involvement, saying security operations are conducted within the law. On Monday, this method of intimidation and often liquidation of innocent Baloch citizens was discussed at a conference in London.
