QUETTA, BALOCHISTAN: Rafia Baloch, wife of Balochistan National Party (BNP) leader Jumma Khan Nachari, along with their daughters Tania Baloch and Javeria Baloch, have returned home safely, according to sources. The three women had been reported forcibly disappeared.
Their release follows strong condemnation of the abduction by the Baloch Women Forum and other human rights advocates, who had described the enforced disappearance of the three women as a deeply disturbing escalation of violence in Balochistan. The Baloch Women Forum (BWF) said the deliberate targeting of women marks a troubling pattern, adding that enforced disappearances have increasingly become a weapon used against Baloch women, shattering families and spreading fear throughout communities.
The Forum had said that the enforced disappearance of Baloch women, once treated as an exception, had become a recurring reality, citing the case of Rafia, Tania, and Javeria as part of an unmistakable pattern alongside previously disappeared Baloch women. It described the normalization of such cases as “a stain on the conscience of every institution that continues to remain silent,” asserting that Baloch women should never be used as bargaining chips or subjected to collective punishment for political purposes.
Human rights organizations echoed similar concerns, with the Baloch Women Forum vowing to raise its voice at every national and international forum until such disappearances end and those responsible are held accountable. The Forum had also called on the international community, human rights mechanisms, and defenders of justice to act against what it described as the normalization of enforced disappearances targeting Baloch women.
No official statement has been issued regarding the circumstances of the women’s release.
