Five tortured bodies of Baloch men were recovered from the Panwan area of Jiwani in Gwadar district, Balochistan, on 4 July, with families and human rights organisations alleging that at least four of the deceased had been forcibly disappeared months before their deaths. The recoveries have drawn sharp condemnation from multiple rights bodies, who allege a systematic pattern of enforced disappearance followed by extrajudicial killing.

The Recovered Bodies

Four of the five deceased were identified as Abdul Haq, Peeri Assa, Shah Bakhsh Umar, and Haider Ali Mohammad. The identity of the fifth person had not been confirmed at the time of reporting. According to rights groups, Abdul Haq was the principal of Memar-e-Nau Academy in Gwadar, while Peeri Assa, 28, and Shah Bakhsh Umar, 33, were both fishermen from the Jiwani region.

Official Version vs. Rights Groups' Account

Pakistani military officials stated that the five were armed men killed during a security operation launched in response to a vehicle-borne attack by the Baloch Liberation Army's (BLA) Majeed Brigade on a Pakistan Coast Guards camp in the Panwan area of Jiwani on the preceding Friday. However, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), activists, journalists, and relatives of the deceased rejected this account. They cited documented records of the men's enforced disappearances and said their families had staged protests over their missing status well before the operation took place, according to reports from The Balochistan Post.

Rights Bodies Detail Individual Cases

Paank, the human rights department of the Baloch National Movement, stated on Monday that Abdul Haq was extrajudicially killed by Pakistani forces after months of enforced disappearance. The Baloch Voice for Justice (BVJ) described his killing as part of a 'systematic pattern in which enforced disappearance is followed by the recovery of mutilated bodies.'

The BYC stated that Peeri Assa was forcibly taken from his home in Jiwani during a late-night raid on 6 January, and that his whereabouts had remained unknown until his body was recovered. 'The killing of Peeri Assa adds another name to the growing list of victims,' the BYC said, adding that 'for decades Baloch people have endured state atrocities, repeatedly receiving the broken and tortured bodies of their loved ones.'

Regarding Shah Bakhsh Umar, the BYC alleged he had been disappeared for nearly six months before his body was recovered bearing extensive signs of abuse. The committee further alleged that 'whenever security failures occur, the bodies of previously disappeared Baloch are frequently produced and labeled as terrorists in an attempt to justify their deaths.'

Broader Pattern and Human Rights Concerns

The BVJ characterised the killings as reflective of 'a defining feature of the ongoing campaign of Baloch genocide, where families are subjected to prolonged uncertainty, psychological torture, and irreversible loss.' Rights organisations have for years documented allegations of enforced disappearances in Balochistan, a province where the Pakistani state has been conducting counterinsurgency operations against armed separatist groups. This is not the first time that families of missing persons have publicly disputed the official framing of killed individuals as militants following security incidents in the region.

Pakistani authorities have not responded publicly to the specific allegations raised by rights groups regarding the prior disappearances of the four identified men. The situation in Gwadar remains closely watched by human rights observers as tensions in the region persist.