QUETTA: Baloch student organization Azad on Monday marked Baloch Missing Persons Day, issuing a statement that said more than 1,200 people from Balochistan were forcibly disappeared by Pakistani security forces in 2025, with hundreds still unaccounted for.
The Baloch Students Organization-Azad (BSO-Azad), said in a statement that June 8 had been designated to honor victims of enforced disappearances and draw international attention to what it described as systematic human rights violations in Balochistan.
“June 8 reminds us of our loved ones who are imprisoned in the occupying Pakistani torture cells, enduring inhumane suffering,” said Sholan Baloch, spokesperson for BSO-Azad, in the statement.
BSO-Azad said victims included students, journalists, teachers, political activists, farmers, shopkeepers, and ordinary civilians, as well as women, children, and the elderly. The organization added that many families did not report disappearances out of fear of further state retaliation, meaning the actual figures could be significantly higher.
“Every family lives in constant fear that their loved ones will not come home because Baloch people feel unsafe everywhere: at home, at university, while traveling, in their fields, and in the marketplace.” He said
The date was chosen to mark the enforced disappearance of Zakir Majeed, the organization’s former vice-chairman, who BSO-Azad says was abducted by Pakistani military and intelligence agencies in the Mastung, Balochistan on June 8. The group says Zakir Majeed remains in detention.
BSO-Azad said international institutions, including the United Nations, had failed to hold Pakistan accountable despite years of advocacy and documentation. The organization accused these bodies of what it called hypocrisy in not fulfilling their responsibilities.
In its statement, BSO-Azad said the Baloch nation would not abandon its struggle for liberation and pledged to continue campaigning for the recovery of all missing persons.
