JAMMU: The central chairman of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO), Jihand Baloch, was detained from his home in Quetta and moved to an undisclosed location, while more than 20 people were taken away in separate raids in Mangochar, the organisation and local sources said. The BSO said in a statement that Pakistani forces detained Jihand Baloch during a raid on his home in Quetta’s Hudda area.
The statement described Baloch as the leader of a student political organisation committed to democratic political activity, adding that he had previously been subjected to enforced disappearance on two occasions. This is the third time Jiland Baloch has been subjected to such behaviour by Pakistani security forces.
The BSO demanded that he be produced immediately and released unconditionally. Baloch’s wife said personnel from the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) entered the family’s home around 11 PM and took him away. “They harassed us at gunpoint, assaulted the children and took my husband, Jihand Baloch, away with them. We have received no information about him since then,” she said.
She called on the authorities to present him before a court if there were any charges against him. She added that the family should be informed about his condition and whereabouts if he was in official custody.
20 Innocent civilians forcibly disappeared in Mangochar
Separately, local sources said Pakistani forces carried out raids in several parts of Mangochar tehsil in Kalat district, subjected residents to physical abuse and detained more than 20 people. The identities and whereabouts of those detained were not immediately known.
The raids come amid reported military operations and movement restrictions in parts of Kalat and neighbouring Mastung district.
A day earlier, Pakistani forces reportedly detained five people, including a woman and three children, in Mastung, while a curfew has also been imposed in Mastung’s Khad Kocha area. Local sources have also reported operations in other parts of Mastung and Kalat, while a resident was reportedly killed in Khuzdar after shelling by Pakistani forces hit a populated area.
Death squad kills young man
Earlier, a young man was shot dead after being abducted from a cricket ground in Turbat’s Ghanne area on Thursday, according to police sources and local residents. The police claimed that two armed men arrived at the cricket ground on a motorcycle and took away Faisal, son of Rasool Bakhsh, a resident of Ghanne. The assailants reportedly took him to nearby date palm orchards, where he was shot dead.
Following reports of the incident, police reached the scene, took custody of the body and transferred it to a hospital for medico-legal procedures. Local residents alleged that the attackers were affiliated with an armed group commonly referred to as a “death squad”. locals and rights groups allege Pakistani secret agencies of backing such death squads in Balochistan to counter, what they describe as the independence movement. No official statement regarding the identity of the assailants was immediately available.
Minor youth abducted, killed in staged encounter
In a separate incident, a body was recovered from the Mand area of Kech district. The police identified the deceased as Abdul Basit, son of Haji Hussain, a resident of Gok, Mand. According to the police, the body bore gunshot wounds.
A body recovered earlier in the Dasht area has been identified as a previously missing person. According to sources, the body was identified as 16-year-old Mujahid, son of Zahid, who was reportedly detained by Pakistan’s Frontier Corps (FC) around 7 AM on July 16 in Bil Nagor, Dasht, in Turbat district. Following his detention, his family reported him missing.
According to local residents, Mujahid was killed on July 21 in what they alleged was a staged encounter, after which his body was reportedly dumped in a forested area of Dasht. This is not the first reported case in Balochistan in which a person previously reported missing was later found dead.
