Quetta, April 21 Sabiha Baloch, a leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), has strongly condemned the enforced disappearance of a Baloch woman by Pakistani forces, describing it as a part of an increasingly systematic pattern.
Haseena Baloch, a housewife and mother was abducted from her home in Karachi on the night of April 16, the Baloch activist stated.
She stressed that the enforced disappearance of Baloch women is no longer an “anomaly” but has become a “deliberate policy”.
Expressing grave concern over the incident, Sabiha took to social media platform X and posted: "International law is unambiguous on this matter. Enforced disappearances constitute crimes against humanity under customary international law. Any confession or statement extracted from a person held in secret, incommunicado detention carries zero legal weight; it is coercion, not evidence.”
She added that the UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and Pakistan's Constitution explicitly prohibit such practices.
“Despite these clear legal prohibitions, those responsible for these crimes have chosen not accountability but a different response: coordinated propaganda campaigns targetting BYC, human rights defenders, and advocates who document these violations," Sabiha stated.
Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Haseena, she said, “Let it be unequivocally stated: no smear campaign will silence us. We will continue documenting. We will continue speaking truth to power.”
The Baloch Women Forum (BWF) also sharply criticised the enforced disappearance of Haseena, stressing that the lack of due process and transparency raises serious legal and humanitarian concerns.
“The rising incidents of Baloch women being abducted and forcibly disappeared reflect a dangerous escalation in ongoing state practices. These actions not only constitute grave violations of human rights but also leave families in prolonged anguish forced to endure silence, uncertainty and psychological suffering in the absence of accountability or justice,” the BWF stated.
The organisation called on the Pakistani authorities to uphold the rule of law and ensure that no individual, particularly women, is subjected to actions outside legal frameworks.
“There is an urgent need for national and international human rights organisations to recognise and respond to the growing dimension of female-enforced disappearances,” the BWF noted.
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