Quetta, Feb 5 (IANS) At least two Baloch civilians were extrajudicially killed in Balochistan by Pakistani forces, a leading human rights organisation said on Thursday.
These latest incidents come against the backdrop of a growing wave of targetted killings and enforced disappearances across the province.
Paank, the Baloch National Movement’s Human Rights Department, mentioned that Balach Khalid, a resident of Turbat city in Kech district, was killed by a Pakistan-backed death squad on Wednesday, after being subjected to repeated enforced disappearances.
Citing local sources, the rights body stated armed motorcyclists, linked to the “death squad,” opened fire on Balach and fled the scene.
According to Paank, Balach was first abducted on the night of October 25, 2023 and released after 25 days on November 15, 2023. It added that months afterwards, he was forcibly disappeared again, subsequently handed over to Pakistan’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), and released after several months in custody.
“Before his killing, Balach had reportedly survived at least two earlier assassination attempts by the same death squad,” the rights body stated.
Paank also revealed that another Baloch civilian, 60-year-old Babu Atta Muhammad Badini, was killed on February 3 as a result of direct firing by the Pakistani Army in Killi Qazi Abad area of Nushki district in Balochistan.
The rights body cited available information stating that Pakistani forces opened fire in the area, leading to his death.
“This incident reflects the ongoing pattern of lethal force used against civilians in Balochistan,” Paank noted.
Highlighting the atrocities in Balochistan, the rights body brought to light the enforced disappearance of a 15-year-old student, Hasnain Baloch, on February 3 from Killi Asghar Abad Sariab Customs area of provincial capital Quetta at the hands of the Pakistan Army.
In its latest annual human rights report titled “A Year of Repression: Balochistan 2025,” Paank documented widespread human rights violations across the province in 2025.
The report recorded 1,355 cases of enforced disappearances, 225 extrajudicial killings, repeated aerial attacks on civilian areas in the province, while alleging systematic misuse of legal and administrative measures to suppress peaceful civic movements and restrictions on information aimed at silencing victims’ families and witnesses.
As per the findings of Paank, Pakistan’s apparatus— primarily the Pakistani military, its multifaceted intelligence agencies, and the paramilitary Frontier Corps—“has intensified its campaign against the Baloch population through a strategic combination of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and the novel deployment of sophisticated aerial warfare technology against civilian populations.”
–IANS
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