PARIS: The Baloch National Movement (BNM) has urged the international community to hold Pakistan accountable for the enforced disappearance of prominent Baloch student leader Zakir Majeed, as his case marks 17 years with no answers, no justice, and no return.
Dr. Naseem Baloch, Chairman of the BNM, issued the appeal on Monday, June 8, 2026, via his official account on X (formerly Twitter), on the 17th anniversary of Zakir Majeed’s abduction by Pakistani security forces. In his post, he called on human rights organizations and democratic governments worldwide to break their silence over what he described as a systematic and ongoing policy of enforced disappearances targeting the Baloch people.
Zakir Majeed was a well-known Baloch student activist and Vice Chairman of the Baloch Student Organisation-Azad (BSO-Azad) when he was abducted on June 8, 2009, in Balochistan. He was widely regarded as a prominent voice for Baloch student rights and political representation before his disappearance.
For 17 years, his family has received no official information regarding his whereabouts, condition, or fate, leaving them in a prolonged state of grief and uncertainty that Dr. Naseem described as 17 years of pain, uncertainty, and suffering.
In his strongly worded post, Dr. Naseem Baloch said the international community can no longer afford to remain silent on the issue of enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
“The international community, human rights organizations, and democratic governments must break their silence and hold Pakistan accountable for these grave violations,” he wrote.
The BNM chairman stressed that Zakir Majeed’s case is not an isolated incident but a symbol of a much larger and deeply rooted human rights crisis in Balochistan, where thousands of families continue to search for missing sons, brothers, fathers, and daughters.
Dr. Naseem argued that enforced disappearances in Balochistan represent a deliberate state policy rather than individual incidents, pointing to thousands of documented cases of missing persons from the province over the past two decades.
Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly raised concerns over enforced disappearances in Balochistan. Pakistani courts, including the Supreme Court, have taken up the issue on multiple occasions, yet families of the missing say little progress has been made in recovering their loved ones or prosecuting those responsible.
Marking the grim milestone, Dr. Naseem said the passage of 17 years without accountability reflects the scale of impunity that exists in Pakistan regarding its treatment of Baloch activists and political voices.
“Seventeen years is not just a measure of time,” he wrote. “It is 17 years of pain, uncertainty, and suffering for his loved ones.”
He added that Zakir Majeed’s disappearance has come to represent the collective suffering of the Baloch people, whose demands for justice, dignity, and democratic rights continue to go unanswered.
