Quetta, Nov 14 (IANS) Amid escalating atrocities against civilians in Balochistan, Pakistani forces, along with members of a state-backed death squad, assaulted women and children and set several houses on fire during raids in Balochistan’s Nushki district, local media reported on Saturday, citing sources.
The raids conducted on Friday in the Killi Jamaldini area of Nushki targeted the residences of relatives of a civilian named Altaf Jamaldini, who was recently killed in a shooting carried out by death squads.
The latest raids came two days after Pakistani forces and members of a death squad reportedly stormed Altaf’s residence during a condolence gathering.
Women were allegedly assaulted and houses set ablaze during the earlier incident as well, The Balochistan Post reported.
These incidents have triggered strong public outrage, with residents accusing the police and district administration of shielding criminal elements rather than protecting civilians and preventing such acts of violence.
Meanwhile, the body of a forcibly disappeared civilian identified as Imran was recovered on Saturday from the Tump area of Kech district in Balochistan.
According to his family, Imran had been subjected to enforced disappearance nearly 15 days ago by Pakistani forces and death squad personnel during a raid on his home, the Balochistan Post reported.
On Thursday, the bodies of two young men were recovered in Kech district, while at least three others, including a journalist, have been forcibly disappeared by Pakistani forces in Mastung and Panjgur districts of the province, local media reported.
Reports suggest that the bodies of the deceased, identified as Jabir and Zubair, were recovered in the Tump region of Kech on Thursday, nearly two months after being subjected to enforced disappearance by Pakistani forces.
Both men belonged to the same family and were residents of Gomazi in Tump.
Citing sources, The Balochistan Post reported that journalist Niaz Baloch was forcibly disappeared by Pakistani forces on Wednesday night during a raid on his residence in Mastung district. Since then, his family remains unaware of his whereabouts and condition.
In a separate incident in Panjgur district, a 30-year-old shopkeeper, Qambar, was taken from his shop in the Chitkan area on the evening of November 1 by a state-backed death squad.
The following day, a 70-year-old farmer, Hayatan, a resident of the Parom area in Panjgur, was abducted by Pakistan’s Frontier Corps (FC) and taken to an undisclosed location, with his whereabouts remaining unknown.
–IANS
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