QUETTA, BALOCHISTAN: “An Entire Generation Is Being Subjected to Fear”: Baloch Women Forum Marks Five Years Since Two Students Vanished
Five years after two students were forcibly disappeared from inside the University of Balochistan, their whereabouts remain unknown.
Baloch Women Forum (BWF) Organizer Dr Shalee Baloch said that “an entire generation is being subjected to fear” in a statement shared on social media platform X.
She said Sohail Baloch and Fassieh Baloch were forcibly disappeared from within the university premises on 1 November 2021. She described their abduction as “a chilling illustration of the systematic persecution of Baloch youth, who continue to face enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and relentless state repression.”
“An entire generation is being subjected to fear, intimidation and the systematic violation of its fundamental rights,” she said.
Dr Shalee Baloch said the case reflects a wider pattern in Balochistan, where educational institutions, she said, are “increasingly being subjected to militarisation and security control.”
“Universities are being converted into military garrisons, where security forces exercise intrusive surveillance over students, scrutinise their movements and impose an atmosphere of intimidation,” she said.
She said campuses “that should be centres of knowledge, intellectual freedom and critical thinking have been reduced to spaces of militarised control.”
Referring to the two disappeared students, she said their disappearance from within university premises is “a damning indication of how deeply insecurity and coercion have penetrated even the most fundamental spaces of education.”
The BWF organizer described the abductions of Baloch youth, the militarisation of universities and the suppression of intellectual freedom as “part of the broader machinery of colonial domination and systematic oppression imposed upon the Baloch people.”
“This is an assault not only on individual lives but also on an entire generation’s right to education, freedom and a future without fear,” she said.
Marking the fifth anniversary of the incident, she said: “Five years of disappearance, five years of anguish and five years of unanswered questions.”
Dr Shalee Baloch called on the authorities to “immediately disclose the whereabouts of Sohail and Fassieh and ensure their safe and unconditional release,” adding that “those responsible must be held accountable.”
