Washington, Feb 4 (NationPress) Tara Chand, the President of the Baloch American Congress, criticized Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif for his assertion that the enforced disappearances in Balochistan are a mere deception, labeling these remarks as “shameless, cruel, and profoundly offensive”.

In a statement on social media platform X, Chand remarked, “Khawaja Asif should feel ashamed. While addressing the National Assembly, he dismissed the issue of enforced disappearances in Balochistan as a fraud. Such comments are utterly shameless, cruel, and deeply offensive.”

He further stated, “Only when his own children are seized by Pakistani forces, when his family experiences forced disappearances, will he grasp the immense suffering faced by the families of the disappeared. This anguish is already familiar to the people of Balochistan, whose sons and daughters have been abducted by Pakistani soldiers for decades.”

Chand emphasized that for years, the families of the disappeared in Balochistan have “lived like prisoners in their own homeland, enduring in silence, bearing wounds that never heal.”

Condemning Asif's statements, the Baloch leader remarked, “For someone in a public office to deny their suffering is not just irresponsible; it is inhumane and immoral.”

On the same day, Paank, the Human Rights Department of the Baloch National Movement, reported another extrajudicial killing of a Baloch civilian by Pakistani forces in the Panjgur district of Balochistan.

According to the rights organization, the mutilated body of 28-year-old Jasim Jan was discovered in the Washbood area of Panjgur on Tuesday, after he was reportedly forcibly disappeared on January 21 by members of a Pakistan-backed death squad.

In its annual human rights report, titled “A Year of Repression: Balochistan 2025,” Paank documented extensive human rights abuses throughout the province in 2025.

The report noted 1,355 cases of enforced disappearances, 225 extrajudicial killings, and recurrent aerial assaults on civilian regions in the province, alleging systematic misuse of legal and administrative tools by Pakistani authorities to suppress peaceful civic movements and impose information restrictions aimed at silencing victims’ families and witnesses.

Paank highlighted the atrocities committed by Pakistani forces across Balochistan, stating, “The most concerning development in 2025 was the state's increased use of aerial warfare—including drone strikes and helicopter gunships—against civilian residential and leisure areas. These operations are often carried out under the pretense of ‘intelligence-based operations’ (IBOs) but have repeatedly led to civilian massacres.”