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Amnesty International has urged Pakistani authorities to reveal the fate and whereabouts of Mahjabeen Baloch, a 23-year-old student who was forcibly disappeared from Quetta three months ago, and to put an end to the practice of enforced disappearances.
According to The Balochistan Post, Amnesty highlighted Mahjabeen's case in a series of social media graphics shared on X, featuring her photograph with the caption "Where is Mahjabeen Baloch?" The rights group stated that Pakistan must disclose the locations of Mahjabeen, her brother Younus, and all other victims of enforced disappearance. Mahjabeen, a library science student at the University of Balochistan, was abducted from her hostel at around 3:00 am on May 29 by personnel of the Counter-Terrorism Department, Amnesty said. Since then, her family has had no contact with her. Her brother, 25-year-old Younus Baloch, an engineering student at BUETK in Khuzdar and father of two daughters, was allegedly picked up by army personnel on May 24, just days earlier. He, too, remains missing. The siblings' disappearance has left their family in anguish, with their parents and sister desperately seeking answers. The Balochistan Post reported that activists and rights defenders see Mahjabeen's case as part of a wider pattern of targeting young students and women in Balochistan. Dr. Sabiha Baloch, a central leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, wrote on X that Mahjabeen's story shows how vulnerable women from marginalised communities are being subjected to state repression. Paank, the human rights wing of the Baloch National Movement, condemned the siblings' abduction, calling it a "state policy to suppress dissent." The group documented at least 785 cases of enforced disappearance and 121 extrajudicial killings in Balochistan so far this year, describing the acts as violations of both Pakistan's Constitution and international conventions. The Balochistan Post noted that the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has also warned that enforced disappearances in the province "continue unabated" and that the culture of impunity is deepening alienation in the region. Amnesty and rights groups hope to draw global attention and pressure the state to end the cycle of enforced disappearances, The Balochistan Post stated. (ANI)
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