The Baloch Women Forum (BWF) has sent an open letter to United Nations bodies and international human rights organisations, calling for urgent intervention over what it describes as escalating human rights violations in Balochistan, including alleged enforced disappearances of Baloch women.
Addressed to the UN Human Rights Council, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Front Line Defenders, the letter requests immediate global attention to what BWF calls a growing crisis.
The forum alleges that Baloch women are being systematically targeted as part of a broader pattern of repression and characterises the incidents as “state atrocities.” It highlighted three cases in particular: Khadija Baloch, a nursing student at Bolan Medical College in Quetta, whom BWF says was taken from her hostel room by state-affiliated operatives; Haseena Noor Bakhsh, a homemaker from Naval, Karachi, who was allegedly taken from her home in front of her children despite having no known political links; and Gul Banuk Taj, a housewife from Singabad Tejaban, Kech, who BWF reports was abducted and whose husband’s appeals to authorities have produced no resolution.
BWF says families have received no information about the women’s whereabouts and that no formal charges have been filed. The forum contends these are not isolated incidents but part of a strategy to silence Baloch women — students, mothers and homemakers — on the basis of identity and social role, in violation of Pakistan’s international human rights obligations.
The letter asks international bodies to investigate, ensure accountability, and take immediate steps to address alleged enforced disappearances and systemic discrimination, urging global intervention to protect fundamental rights and secure justice for affected families. (ANI)
