Baloch rights group raises issue of increase in number of enforced disappearances in Pakistan

Balochistan [Pakistan], October 10 (ANI): The Chairman of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, Nasrullah Baloch has said that the number of enforced disappearance cases has increased in Pakistan.
Raising concern over the issue, Nasrullah Baloch said that the number of forced missing cases has increased in Balochistan and at the same time the killing of missing persons in fake encounters is going on, reported Pakistan vernacular media, Intekhab Daily.
He also said that Blochs are being targeted for violence and brutality in Iran.
"Many Balochs are killed in Iran. Even women are forcefully being disappeared like men. We condemn them all," said the chairman.
According to several reports, innocent Balochs are killed in fake encounters and their mutilated bodies are found in remote places.
An annual report of the Human Rights Council of Balochistan, an organisation that documents human rights violations in the province, has said that students remain the main target of these kidnappings both in Balochistan and in other regions of Pakistan.
In July, Pakistani security forces forcibly abducted 45 persons including 10 students. Fifteen people were released later while the whereabouts of 35 people remain unknown.
July witnessed an increase in the cases of killings as compared to the previous months.
Human Rights Council of Balochistan documented 48 cases of killings, including five women while fourteen bodies remained unidentified.
Recently, the Iranian government closed the Gabd-Rimdan border with Pakistan following deadly clashes between Iran's security forces and its Baloch people in Zahedan, the capital of Iran's Sistan and Balochistan Province, media reports said.
According to Amnesty International, at least 82 persons were killed in clashes.
Protests in Zahedan populated by the Baloch ethnic minority took place after Friday prayers on September 30 as a show of solidarity with nationwide protests and to demand accountability for the reported rape of a 15-year-old girl by a police commander in the province. (ANI)