Islamabad, Sep 11 (IANS) The disturbing pattern of enforced disappearances carried out by Pakistani forces in Balochistan has historically been marked by the targeting of men, with women bearing the resulting social, economic and psychological costs. Since 2025, this trend appears to have evolved, with women increasingly becoming direct targets of state action, indicating a broader dimension of repression by Pakistani authorities across the province, a report has stated.
“Forced confessions have become a recurring practice used by the state in Pakistan to shape public narratives around dissent in Balochistan. Women are first subjected to enforced disappearance, held in custody for prolonged periods without due process, and exposed to coercion and abuse. After weeks or months in detention, they are suddenly brought before the public, often through staged appearances or recorded videos, to ‘confess’ to acts they have consistently denied. The case of Mahal Baloch was one of the earliest examples of this pattern,” according to a report in South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP).
“In February 2023, Mahal Baloch was taken into custody by CTD during a late-night raid on her home in the Satellite Town of Quetta, without a warrant. Authorities later claimed she had been arrested with explosives and accused her of links to militant activity, including involvement in a suicide attack, allegations her family strongly denied. Despite being kept on physical remand for fifty-five days, authorities failed to present any substantial evidence against her. Instead, a video later surfaced in which she appeared to ‘confess’ to militant involvement. This statement was made while she remained in police custody, not before a court of law,” it detailed.
The report noted that the involvement of some Baloch women in insurgent groups, including female fidayeen(suicide) attacks on Pakistani security forces and state installations, has prompted the government to extend its long-standing practice of enforced disappearances to women, a tactic it has used against Baloch men for decades.
It also highlighted that while a small number of Baloch women have participated in insurgent attacks, women in Balochistan have increasingly emerged as prominent voices in non-violent political activism over the past decade, particularly against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
They have spearheaded prolonged protests over missing relatives, accusing security agencies of abducting their family members.
“Hundreds of women and family members undertook a massive march covering roughly 1,000 miles from Turbat town (Kech District) in Balochistan to Islamabad, and staged sit-ins outside the Islamabad Press Club, demanding the recovery of missing persons, drawing national attention,” the report mentioned.
Describing the increasing involvement of Baloch women in the resistance movement, Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) leader Sammi Deen Baloch told Arab News in an interview last year that the escalating enforced disappearance of men had pushed women to assume a leading role in the fight for justice.
“We see that our men, our brothers and sons, were systematically taken from their homes, from educational institutions, dragged away while they slept at night. In such circumstances, the only option left for Baloch women was to take this fight into their own hands, to step forward and lead the battle for justice themselves,” the SATP report quoted Sammi as saying.
–IANS
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