 "Baloch activists hold pictures of their missing family members in Islamabad, Pakistan, 2023. Representational image: AP")
Massive outcry erupted in Pakistan-administered Balochistan province following the disappearance and killing of a young Baloch activist by Pakistani military personnel. The activist named Zeeshan Ahmed had been campaigning for the safe return of his father, Zaheer, who was forcibly disappeared by Pakistan’s Frontier Corps in 2015.
Zeeshan was 11 years old when his father was abducted, and his sister was just a 40-day-old newborn at that time. According to the information obtained by The Times of India, Zeeshan went missing on June 29, and his body was recovered the very next day.
The incident is the latest in a series of “ forced disappearances ” that have long plagued Balochistan. According to the Human Rights Watch report, there are 8,463 documented cases of such disappearances between 2011 and 2024.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances estimated that at least 10,078 cases had plagued the province in 2024.
Zeeshan was abducted on June 29, around 8 pm (local time) after a football match. “He was walking towards home when two vehicles belonging to the state-backed death squad intercepted him”, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee said in a statement.
“Witnesses saw him beaten up, his hands bound, and then thrown into one of the vehicles,” the committee furthered. The same night, family and residents of Panjgur blocked the CPEC road and began a sit-in, demanding the activist’s immediate release.
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More ShortsBy morning, they found Zeeshan’s “bullet-riddled body dumped in Panjgur. Activists said that the body bore the signs of torture, bruises from “sticks and blunt force, six bullets to the chest, and deep knife wounds.”
With inputs from agencies.