Quetta: The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has released a report highlighting the pattern of enforced disappearances of Baloch women and girls across Balochistan during 2025, saying the use of collective punishment and gender-based human rights violations.
Titled “Enforced Disappearances of Baloch Women in 2025: Collective Punishment and Gender-Based Human Rights Violations in Balochistan,” the report states that at least 12 women and girls were forcibly disappeared across different districts of the Balochistan over the course of the year. BYC said these cases do not represent isolated incidents but point to a systematic practice in which enforced disappearance is used as a tool of repression.
The report states that the victims included female students, lady health workers, minor girls, and an eight-months pregnant woman. In several instances, multiple members of the same family were targeted during single operations, causing long-term psychological, social, and economic harm to entire families and communities.
According to BYC, all recorded cases involved women being taken into custody without arrest warrants, judicial oversight, or legal justification. The report says that state institutions repeatedly denied holding the women or refused to disclose their whereabouts. While some women were reportedly later released, this occurred without any formal charges, court proceedings, or official explanations, which BYC said constitutes a continuing violation of international human rights law.
The report also cites a particularly grave case from Panjgur, involving Nazia Shafi, who BYC alleges was subjected to severe torture and sexual abuse following her disappearance and later died from her injuries. BYC described the case as an extrajudicial killing and one of the most serious human rights abuses documented in the report.
In addition to enforced disappearances, the report claims that women and their families faced broader patterns of intimidation, including raids on homes, threats, restrictions on movement, damage to property and abductions from public spaces, which the committee said are intended to instill fear and silence dissent.
BYC concluded that the enforced disappearances of Baloch women in 2025 reflect a deliberate policy of state repression and collective punishment, in violation of international human rights conventions to which Pakistan is a party.
The committee has demanded an immediate end to enforced disappearances in Balochistan, the unconditional release of all disappeared women, and official acknowledgment of each case along with disclosure of the victims’ whereabouts. It also called for independent, transparent, and impartial investigations, accountability for those responsible, and the provision of psychological, medical, and legal support to affected families.
BYC further appealed to the United Nations and international human rights organisations to urgently take notice of the situation of Baloch women in Balochistan and to take concrete measures to prevent further violations.
