Quetta, Jan 20 (IANS) A leading human rights organisation on Tuesday expressed serious concern over what it described as the continued pattern of extrajudicial killings in Balochistan’s Mastung district, allegedly carried out under the guise of “encounters” by the Pakistani security forces.
Condemning the incident, the Baloch Voice for Justice (BVJ) stated that these incidents reflect a systematic abuse of power where Baloch civilians are deprived of their right to life without due process.
“There are serious fears that many victims of these staged encounters are previously forcibly disappeared persons. Families who have searched for years are left in constant anguish, haunted by every report of an encounter killing. The concealment of bodies and denial of information compounds their suffering and constitutes cruel and inhuman treatment,” the BVJ stated.
According to the rights body, these extrajudicial killings have continued for years with complete impunity, adding that no credible investigations have been conducted by the Pakistani authorities, and no accountability followed. This pattern, it said, signalled institutional tolerance for grave human rights violations.
The BVJ called for immediate independent investigations, public disclosure of victim identities, and concrete measures to end enforced disappearance and staged encounter killings across the province.
Earlier on Monday, the Baloch Women Forum (BWF) expressed serious concern over widespread human rights violations across Balochistan, citing a sharp increase in abuses against civilians, especially women, by Pakistani security forces.
In its report titled ‘Baloch Women Victimisation in 2025’, the BWF highlighted that extrajudicial killings remain a serious issue in Balochistan, particularly the targeted murders, fake encounters, in-custody murders and fake-explosive murders.
The region, it said, has observed a severe nature of rights abuses and has been a centre for “atrocities-without-accountability”.
The forum stated that many Baloch women also have faced direct violence through various means, particularly torture during illegal detentions, indiscriminate firing and related abuses at the hands of the Pakistani forces.
Balochistan has been reeling under the endless atrocities at the hands of Pakistani authorities, who facilitate death squads in the region to carry out enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and illegal detentions of Baloch people.
–IANS
scor/sd/
