QUETTA: The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has strongly condemned the recently passed Balochistan Prevention of Detention and De-Radicalization Act 2025, calling it a new and dangerous form of genocide against the Baloch people.
In a detailed statement, the committee highlighted that enforced disappearances have plagued Balochistan for decades, affecting nearly every Baloch household either directly or indirectly. They pointed out that various institutions of the Pakistani state have been involved in this ongoing human rights crisis. Courts and commissions, the committee said, have often politicized or downplayed the issue, making it clear that this systemic oppression is part of a broader state policy rather than isolated incidents.
The committee criticized the provincial government for expanding the practice of enforced disappearances under the guise of the new law. Passed on June 5, 2025, the Act allows authorities to detain individuals for up to three months without filing an FIR or presenting evidence, based solely on suspicion. Detainees can be held in so-called de-radicalization centers without court appearances. Although the law mandates notifying families within 24 hours, the committee stated this is a false pretense, as hundreds of Baloch have disappeared since the law’s implementation, many remaining unaccounted for to this day.
Describing the law as an imitation of China’s approach to Uyghur Muslims, the committee warned that the new detention system subjects detainees to mental, physical and psychological torture aimed at erasing their identity and suppressing political and cultural expression.
Even those released after detention reportedly suffer severe mental health consequences, including depression, the committee added.
The statement also condemned the state’s narrative tactics, alleging that families are coerced into publicly disowning their disappeared relatives, only to later have the bodies of those individuals recovered.
The Baloch Yakjehti Committee appealed to the Baloch nation to raise their voices against this “new form of genocide” and to never remain silent about the enforced disappearances of their loved ones.
Furthermore, the committee called on international human rights organizations to urgently investigate these ongoing disappearances and the implementation of the controversial law. They urged global actors to ensure independent, transparent, and impartial inquiries into the detentions and extrajudicial killings linked to the Act.
