Quetta, Sep 29 — At least two people were killed and two others injured while a minor boy was abducted after unidentified armed men attacked a residence with a rocket launcher and gunfire in Balochistan's Kech district, a leading human rights organisation stated on Tuesday.
Citing reports, the Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB) said that a deadly armed attack on a home in the Alandoor area of Buleda in Kech killed two people, including a woman, injured two others, and resulted in the abduction of a 12-year-old boy.
The deceased were identified as Sardar Yahya and Aisha, while two others, Shayhaq and Shahab, were injured.
According to HRCB, the house was reportedly extensively damaged, while household belongings and vehicles were also destroyed. As the attackers were leaving, they reportedly took away the 12-year-old boy Brahmdagh. His whereabouts remain unknown, and his family fears for his safety.
Raising alarm over the growing insecurity faced by civilians in Kech, particularly the killing of a woman and the reported abduction of a child, the rights body said that the attacks on civilian homes, as well as the killing and abduction of women and children, raise serious human rights concerns.
HRCB calls for the immediate and safe release of Brahmdagh and urges those holding him to return him to his family unharmed.
On Monday, the Baloch Women Forum (BWF) revealed that 25-year-old Hani Baloch and her minor daughter Ayesha Baloch were forcibly disappeared on the night of September 27 from their home in Kech by Pakistani security forces and state-backed death squads. Since then, it said, their whereabouts remain unknown.
“The abduction of Baloch women and children takes place within a system of colonial domination over the colonised Baloch population, where enforced disappearance, intimidation and collective punishment are used to exert control beyond the individual being targeted. When a mother and her child are taken from their home, the consequences extend to the entire family, leaving relatives in fear, uncertainty and prolonged suffering,” the BWF stated.
“Alongside these disappearances, there are attempts to control how Balochistan is presented to the outside world. In many cases, forcibly disappeared individuals have been pressured to appear before cameras or deliver statements under coercive conditions. Such manufactured narratives seek to conceal the reality of enforced disappearance and project an image of normalcy while families continue to search for those taken from them,” it added.