Members of a family belonging to the Panjgur district of Balochistan have been forcibly disappeared, according to a report by the BBC. The missing include two men, two women and a six-day-old baby. At the time of the hearing of the petition, one of the missing men was recovered.
According to relatives of the missing, the baby was only six days old at the time of disappearance and thus could not be named, as his mother was also missing.
The relatives of the missing have blamed the Frontier Corps South for the disappearance of their family members.
However, during the hearing, the High Court was informed by both the Frontier Corps (FC), as well as the Counter-Terrorism Department that the missing persons were not in their custody.
Previously, government officials had termed the leveling of accusations of enforced disappearances on the security forces as a 'conspiracy' aimed at creating divisions and mistrust amongst the people of Balochistan, adding that this only serves the purpose of inciting hatred against the security agencies.
According to a family member of the disappeared persons, they have been identified as Abdul Rehman and his son Abdul Haq, as well as the wife of Abdul Rehman's brother, Bibi Shah and her daughter-in-law Bibi Shahzadi, and her unnamed 6-day-old child.
He said that Abdul Rehman and Abdul Haq were picked up by unknown individuals on April 26, while the next day, the two women and the child went missing as well.
The relative claims that all five missing persons are innocent, and were picked up because the father of the infant, Madad Baloch, failed to show up when summoned by the FC.
Madad Baloch and his father Haroon Baloch had allegedly been picked up by the FC in August 2021, and the two were kept in solitary confinement for three months. They were released only on the condition that they would keep their movement restricted to their house.
However, Madad Baloch, who was allegedly severely tortured while at the FC camp, decided to migrate abroad out of fear of repeated abductions and violence. Upon his failure to show up when summoned by the FC, five of his family members were also picked up later, claims the relative.