PARIS: Dr. Naseem Baloch, Chairman of the Baloch National Movement (BNM), said in a statement shared on social media platform X that Abdul Haq Baloch, principal of Memar-e-Nau Academy in Gwadar, was killed in custody following months of enforced disappearance.
According to the statement, Abdul Haq Baloch, the younger brother of forcibly disappeared BNM leader Ramzan Baloch was abducted by Pakistani military forces in Gwadar in February. His body, along with two others, was recovered Thursday from the Panwan area of Gwadar’s Jiwani district, reportedly bearing visible signs of torture. Dr. Baloch said Abdul Haq was killed in custody and his body dumped.
The statement said Abdul Haq held a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Balochistan and had founded Memar-e-Nau Academy in Mashkay to educate local children, which he said was later shut down by the military. He subsequently established a second branch of the academy in Gwadar, where he continued teaching until his abduction in February.
Dr. Baloch’s statement also referenced Abdul Haq’s elder brother, Ramzan Baloch, saying he was forcibly disappeared on July 25, 2009, after being abducted from Zero Point in Uthal while travelling from Mashkay to Gwadar and remains missing.
The BNM chairman described the killing as part of a broader pattern of targeting educators, intellectuals, and civil society members in Balochistan, citing the earlier deaths of Zahid Askani, a private school principal in Gwadar, and professor Ghamkhwar Hayat, both of whom he said were killed by state agencies.
In his statement, Dr. Baloch said no segment of Baloch society, including teachers, students, lawyers, journalists, doctors, and human rights defenders, is safe from enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, and other rights violations, which he described as a serious violation of international human rights law.
He called on the United Nations, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), UN special procedures experts, and other international bodies to take urgent notice of the situation, ensure independent and impartial investigations into Abdul Haq’s death and other cases of enforced disappearance in Balochistan, and hold Pakistan responsible.
