Pakistani Soldiers Have Killed Over 1,000 Activists In Balochistan Since 2011

As many as 1,000 bodies of freedom activists have been found in Balochistan in the last five years, according to figures shared by Pakistan’s Federal Ministry of Human Rights, BBC reported on Monday. According to Dawn, over 800 of these bodies were found in Balochistan during last three-and-a-half years, with most of them being found in Quetta, Khuzdar and Makran belt.

Pakistan’s intelligence and security agencies have been accused by international human rights agencies, including Human Rights Watch and United Nations Commission on Human Rights, of unlawfully detaining, killing and of being responsible for forcible disappearance of people in the resource-rich but impoverished region which accounts for nearly half the land mass of Pakistan.

International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) claims that 18,000 Baloch were missing by 2014, of whom more than 2,000 were killed. According to VBMP chief Nasrullah Baloch, most of the bodies “are of those activists who have been victims of ‘enforced disappearances’ - people who are picked up by authorities and then just go missing”. VBMP has recorded 1,200 cases of dumped bodies and says there are many more it has not been able to document.

According to Ashraf Sherjan, president of the Germany Chapter of the Baloch Republican Party, "families of enforced-disappeared Balochs" report that between 1999 and 2015, "more than 20,000 Balochs have disappeared.