Pakistani security forces abduct another Baloch woman in Turbat, marking alarming pattern of enforced disappearances

Balochistan [Pakistan], July 1 (ANI): Pakistani security forces have reportedly forcibly taken a Baloch woman in Turbat, Balochistan, marking the second instance when a Baloch woman has been reported missing in just over a month, The Balochistan Post reported.

Rubina Baloch (30) was apprehended on Monday while she was at her sister’s home in the Overseas Colony region of Turbat city, The Balochistan Post reported. She works as a government Lady Health Visitor and hails from Gowarkop in the Kech district. Eyewitnesses said that she was taken by personnel from the Frontier Corps and Military Intelligence during a targeted operation at approximately 4 pm (local time). Her location is currently unknown.

The Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has verified the incident and voiced grave concern regarding what it characterised as a “growing trend" of the enforced disappearances of Baloch women. It demanded Rubina’s immediate release.

The Baloch Women Forum has also denounced the abduction. In a statement, the group stated: “It is extremely distressing to learn that this afternoon at around 4 on June 30, another Baloch woman, Rubina Baloch, daughter of Mohib Ullah and a resident of Sari Kallag Gowarkop, was forcibly taken from her sister’s residence in Turbat’s Overseas Colony. She is professionally a Lady Health Visitor, who was taken unlawfully."

The forum cautioned that such incidences of Baloch women going missing are “becoming increasingly frequent". It urged the state’s law enforcement bodies to “avoid involving women in the atrocious act of enforced disappearances and unknown detentions."

Rubina’s abduction occurs just a month after the disappearance of Mahjabeen Baloch, a 24-year-old student and polio survivor, who was taken from the Quetta Civil Hospital on May 29.

Mahjabeen had been temporarily residing at the hospital due to a lack of space in her university hostel. She was reportedly taken during a coordinated operation involving police, the Counter-Terrorism Department, and intelligence personnel, The Balochistan Post reported. Her whereabouts also remain unknown. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)

World