Quetta, Jan 4 (IANS) Pakistan's Balochistan witnessed a rise in enforced disappearances, an escalation of state repression, and further restrictions on political activists in 2025. The forcible disappearance of students, political activists and relatives of people related to Balochistan resistance continued and the cases of enforced disappearances of women have increased in Balochistan, local media reported on Sunday.
In 2025, more than 10 women were subjected to enforced disappearance and eight women continue to remain missing till date.
Under the pretext of restoring its authority, the Balochistan government is increasing state repression in the region and Baloch women are increasingly becoming the targets, The Balochistan Post reported.
A report in The Balochistan Post said, "Months and years continue to pass in Balochistan, yet instead of any improvement in the prevailing conditions, serious problems are steadily worsening. The year 2025 witnessed an increase in enforced disappearances, an escalation of state repression, and further restrictions on political activists. Despite the Pakistan Peoples Party–led government failing to present solid legal justification for the arrest and continued detention of Baloch political leaders, the courts in Balochistan have remained unable to secure their release."
While Balochistan continued to face political crisis in 2025, official figures revealed a rise in attacks on people, police, and security forces, including the Frontier Corps.
As many as 443 people, including 202 Army officers and personnel, were killed in suicide attacks, bomb explosions, and targeted killings.
In 2025, Jaffar Express also faced repeated bomb blasts, damage to bridges, and the hijacking of the Peshawar-bound train on March 11.
A report in The Balochistan Post said, "There are no signs of a reduction in Balochistan’s grave problems in 2026. At the end of 2025, employees of the Balochistan Grand Alliance are continuing their pen-down strike, families of forcibly disappeared women in Kech district are holding a sit-in on the CPEC highway for their recovery, and political struggle against state repression remains ongoing. The intensification of attacks by Baloch armed groups is causing damage to state interests. Given these severe issues and the war-like conditions prevailing in Balochistan, it is not difficult to conclude that the situation will remain dire in the New Year as well."
Families staged a sit-in protest in province's Kech district blocking a key stretch of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in the Tejaban region for the third consecutive day to demand the recovery of four missing members of the same family, local media reported on Saturday.
The demonstration comes amid reports that the district administration broke an agreement, leaving women and children on the road overnight in freezing conditions.
According to the protesters, during talks with the district administration last week, officials assured them of the recovery of missing persons, especially women. Thereafter, the sit-in protest was temporarily ended but resumed when the authorities failed to act, The Balochistan Post reported.
The protesters said that the four members of the same family, one of whom is nine months pregnant, remain missing, and the authorities' failure to recover them has sparked serious concerns.
The four members, including two women, Hani Dilwash and Hair-Nisa, were forcibly disappeared from Hub Chowki, and two men, Fareed Ijaz and Mujahid Dilwash, were forcibly disappeared from Tejaban in Kech by Pakistani military forces.
On the other hand, protesters alleged that Pakistani forces detained another four people, including two women from Tejaban at the Hub checkpoint, and transferred them to an unknown location. The families and protesters have also dismissed social media claims that the detained individuals were planning a suicide attack.
