Pakistan’s Recent Oppression of Balochistan
@private
By Kadeem Baloch
Recently, 48 people forcibly disappeared in just five days this month in Balochistan. Pakistani security forces detained 35 people in Kalat who subsequently vanished.[1] Five others were taken into custody and killed outright. This is not an anomaly. It’s Pakistan’s deliberate policy.
Thousands of Baloch men have been abducted by state security forces, creating a society of “half-widows” and “half-orphans” – women who don’t know if their husbands are dead or alive, and children who may never see their fathers again. These families receive no closure, no answers, and certainly no justice from Pakistani authorities.
The Baloch National Movement’s human rights division, Paank, has called on international organizations to take immediate notice of these disappearances. Their plea underscores a grim reality: the scale of Pakistan’s campaign is so vast that no single statement can capture it. Their reports document daily violations that Pakistani authorities consistently deny or dismiss. The evidence of state terrorism is undeniable in Quetta, Balochistan’s capital. Frontier Corps personnel now control major areas, conducting invasive checks on highways and in neighborhoods. They’ve suspended mobile internet to prevent documentation of their abuses. Helicopters constantly patrol overhead.
When families dare to protest these disappearances, Pakistan responds with more violence.
On March 8, while the world celebrated International Women’s Day with discussions of progress and equality, Baloch women were blocking highways in Mastung, desperately demanding information about their missing loved ones.[2] Their hunger strike wasn’t about women’s rights, it was about the right to know if their sons, husbands, and brothers are still alive.
Pakistani authorities have turned Balochistan into an open-air prison where basic human rights don’t exist. Women who protest for the return of their disappeared family members face violence and abductions themselves. The state’s message is unmistakable: stay silent or join the disappeared.
“We will not remain silent in the face of this oppression,” the BNM has declared, noting that Pakistani authorities escalate human rights violations specifically to counter the Baloch independence movement.[3]
“The state is using terror to subdue the Baloch nation, but this failed strategy will only result in further bloodshed.”
What makes this state terror even more effective is the wall of silence surrounding it. Pakistan’s mainstream media ignores these atrocities. National feminist movements like the Aurat March exclude Baloch women’s struggles from their platforms. International attention remains focused elsewhere on Kashmir, Afghanistan, or Iran while Pakistan methodically eliminates Baloch resistance.
The prevailing narrative portrays the Balochistan conflict as merely a political confrontation between the state and nationalists. This deliberate framing undermines the grave gendered violence and human rights violations Baloch women face daily. With negligible media coverage from national outlets, these women resort to blocking roads and disrupting traffic to pressure authorities. For them, these are not political statements but desperate acts of survival.
The reason for Pakistan’s brutal campaign is transparent to Balochistan’s vast mineral resources. The province holds valuable deposits that Pakistan’s elite extract while keeping Balochis among the country’s poorest citizens. The Pakistani state treats Balochistan as a colony to be exploited, not a province whose people deserve basic rights.
Despite facing both state violence and entrenched patriarchy, Baloch women have become the backbone of resistance. They lead protests, confront authorities, and maintain families while searching for their disappeared loved ones.
In a society where women traditionally depend on men, Pakistan’s targeted disappearances of fathers, husbands, and sons create not just grief but existential crises. These women play dual roles. They are not only mothers but also fathers and guardians, carrying the weight of both nurturing and protecting their families in a male-dominated society that offers women few opportunities. Beyond these duties, they shoulder the additional burden of fighting for their missing loved ones’ release, traveling from city to city, visiting police stations and courtrooms, all in search of answers that never come.
The term “half-widow” is not just a label; it reflects the harsh reality these women endure. They live in perpetual grief and uncertainty, unable even to properly mourn their losses. The normal processes of grief are impossible when you don’t know if your loved one is alive or dead. Yet despite this emotional toll, these women continue to resist.
On March 27, the Baloch National Movement will mark what they call the anniversary of Pakistan’s “occupation” of Balochistan with events highlighting enforced disappearances and killings. Their main program in Geneva aims to expose Pakistan’s brutality to international bodies – attention Pakistan desperately tries to avoid.
Pakistan has made one thing clear through its actions: in Balochistan, simply surviving with dignity is treated as an act of rebellion. The state’s response to this “rebellion” is a campaign of disappearances, killings, and terror that meets every definition of genocide – regardless of Pakistan’s denials.
For the Baloch people, the fight for independence has become a fight for existence itself. And as long as Balochistan remains under Pakistani control, the BNM warns that enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings will persist. Their statement is both a prediction and a condemnation of a state that has weaponized disappearance as its primary tool of control.
The author chooses a pseudonym. Kadeem Baloch is a freelance journalist based in Pakistan.
Note: The contents of the article are of sole responsibility of the author. Afghan Diaspora Network will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in the articles.
[1] https://balochwarna.com/2025/03/05/bla-claims-responsibility-for-attacks-on-pakistani-forces-in-kalat-and-kech/
[2] https://thediplomat.com/2025/03/before-gender-equality-balochistans-women-must-fight-for-basic-survival/
[3] https://thebalochistanpost.net/2025/03/48-forcibly-disappeared-5-extrajudicially-killed-in-five-days-in-balochistan-paank-report/
