The year 2025 has seen a dramatic increase in human rights violations in Balochistan, with enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings setting new records. Local and foreign human rights groups have reported that state-sponsored violence has become a way of life for the people of the province. The victims' families live in fear as people are kidnapped and never come back.
From January to June 2025, the Balochistan Human Rights Council documented 814 enforced disappearances, which was nearly the total for the entire previous year. The Baloch Yakjehti Committee also documented 752 enforced disappearances and 117 extrajudicial executions between the same period.
Since the province is vast and free media cannot penetrate the area, the figures are usually presumed to be far greater than documented. Students, teachers, activists, doctors, lawyers, farmers, and shopkeepers have been subject to arbitrary targeting.
In the first half of this year, at least 131 people were reportedly executed without a trial. Some were tortured to death while in detention, others were killed in fake encounters, and others just died in mass military operations.
Peaceful voices demanding justice have been responded to with the same sort of violent treatment. The Baloch Yakjehti Committee, a mass movement demanding the return of missing persons without harm, has been increasingly targeted. Leaders were arrested, peaceful marches were broken up with force, and participants were branded "anti-state" in efforts to delegitimize them. But the nature of the committee's message does not vary: accountability for human rights abuses and respect for the Baloch people.
The crackdown on peaceful protests culminated in a tragic conclusion in June 2025 when thirteen-year-old Nehmat Baloch was shot dead by the police during an attack on a sit-in protest. His killing reflected the extent of impunity with which the security apparatus operates and the price at which even children must pay for demanding justice. Such actions reflect the cruelty of a regime that will not tolerate even the mildest forms of peaceful protest.
To this climate of fear, the provincial assembly in June 2025 passed an amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Act that provided the security apparatus with unprecedented powers. The law legalized the warrantless arrests of individuals, authorized ninety-day detention of suspects without political or legal recourse, codified so-called de-radicalization centers, or, effectively, internment camps. The new legislation did not remedy claims; it deepened repression and provided cover to the abuses that were already occurring on the ground.
On August 13, Pakistani troops carried out illegal raids in different neighborhoods of Sariab, Quetta. One of the forcibly disappeared persons was Mama Deen, the son of Muhammad Khan. Only three days later, on August 16, the Counter Terrorism Department abducted Rehman, son of Ramin Bugti, in Dera Bugti after brutally torturing him. These are only a few examples of several such incidents, but they clearly reveal the manner in which extrajudicial actions have become a part of everyday life in Balochistan.
The ongoing atrocities are standard procedure and have long characterized the state's approach in Balochistan. Enforced disappearances are carried out during daytime by men in uniform who are never held to account. Extrajudicial murders are labelled as encounters, or justified through counter-terrorism operations. New laws are passed to provide legal justification for unlawful detention and long detention without trial. The media is silenced and purposefully demolished through anti-activist smear campaigns to typically not allow the news of misery to surface in the national space.
The human toll of such policies is colossal. Families are kept in suspense for decades, not knowing if their kin are alive or dead. Children grow up without parents, whole communities are traumatized, and social trust is lost. Daily life is dominated by fear, where a knock on the door or a nighttime raid can result in the disappearance of a father, brother, or daughter. For many Baloch families, the agony of uncertainty has become a long-term disability.
In Pakistan, civil society organizations like the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons have consistently called for accountability. The VBMP protest camp, now located for over a decade and a half, is a testament to desperation and perseverance.
Internationally, there have been some calls by organizations and human rights activists, but internationally, action has been limited. Geopolitical interests, security alignments, and strategic alignments are prioritized over justice demands in Balochistan. International silence normalizes impunity, providing perpetrators with the belief that they will not be held accountable; without foreign pressure, there is little recourse for Baloch families.
The Balochistan crisis goes beyond the numbers. Each of these examples refers to a real individual that had hopes, families, and a future robbed. Nehmat Baloch's child was robbed, Mama Deen was robbed from his family, and Rehman Bugti was taken and tortured. These examples are not one-offs, they are part of a whole variety of systematic violence. Each of these examples, by itself, is a total disregard for Pakistan's own constitution as well as international treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
If these abuses continue without consequence, then the cycle of violence and distrust will only continue to feed into itself. For Pakistan, repeated abuses of repression diminish its credibility and weakens social order. Thus, Balochistan is not only a national tragedy; it is an international test of moral responsibility.
The events of 2025 reveal one thing: Enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, anti-labour laws and the suppression of peaceful activism cannot be tolerated under any circumstances. The courage of rights group, and the determination of families trying to discern what has happened to their loved ones must be acknowledged and amplified.
Action must be taken immediately. There must be a call for accountability, and a call for repeal of repressive laws by human rights organizations, the UN, and Pakistan's international partners. Justice must be provided to the victims of the kidnappings. If the missing is not recovered, the criminals are not caught, and Baloch citizens are not treated with dignity, the violence will be an endless loop.

Email:-----------------pirzadarehan52@gmail.com