A new report from the Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB) documents a sharp increase in alleged rights violations across the province during February 2026. The HRCB recorded 234 enforced disappearances and 87 killings that month, according to coverage by The Balochistan Post.
The council said the victims included one woman and nine teenagers, while most were men. Only a small number of the disappeared have reappeared; the vast majority remain unaccounted for. HRCB described such violations as increasingly routine in daily life across Balochistan.
The spike in abuses followed coordinated attacks by the Baloch Liberation Army in late January, after which security forces mounted large-scale operations. The report says those operations involved curfews, communication blackouts and extensive use of force, and that civilians suffered as a result. HRCB accuses security agencies of broad raids, arbitrary detentions, destruction of property and mistreatment of civilians, including women and children.
HRCB alleges that many detainees were later killed in staged or so-called “encounter” incidents, a pattern the council calls deliberate and systematic. Students and working-class individuals were reportedly overrepresented among those targeted. Geographically, Quetta recorded the highest number of cases, followed by Nushki, Kech and Gwadar.
The report also documents killings tied to indiscriminate firing, custodial deaths and alleged fake encounters, with several victims showing signs of torture. It highlights civilian casualties from military actions, including deaths of women and children in residential areas. HRCB questioned official narratives that linked arrests to insurgent groups, saying some people presented as newly arrested had been missing beforehand.
At the time of reporting, Pakistani authorities had not issued an official response to the HRCB’s allegations, The Balochistan Post reported. This article is based on a syndicated feed as published by the source.
