Three people, including a child, were injured in a drone attack by Pakistani forces in the Khadkocha area of Balochistan's Mastung district. Amid this, the discovery of six unidentified bodies from two locations in the district has caused a sensation, with a human rights organisation claiming they could be linked to Baloch youths who had earlier been forcibly disappeared.
According to local media citing sources, the drone strike took place in the Garo area of Khadkocha. The injured have been admitted to Nawab Ghous Baksh Raisani Hospital. The area has been gripped by fear since the incident, with residents already bearing the brunt of military operations and movement restrictions.
According to a report by the Balochistan Post, stringent security measures have raised concerns among local communities and human rights organisations over their humanitarian consequences. Several parts of Mastung have also witnessed aerial and drone attacks by Pakistani forces, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries.
Meanwhile, a leading human rights organisation said the recovery of at least six unidentified bodies from two locations in Mastung had heightened fears that they could belong to Baloch youths previously forcibly disappeared by Pakistani forces.
According to Baloch Voice for Justice (BVJ), the recovered bodies were found to bear marks of torture, the organisation claimed. Several hours later, the bodies were removed and taken to hospital under the supervision of police officer Abdul Rauf Baloch.
The human rights organisation said the bodies were later taken to Quetta, but were subsequently brought back and dumped on the same main highway. A few hours after that, the bodies were allegedly loaded onto a jambad vehicle (a pickup truck) and taken to an unknown location.
Expressing serious concern over the incident, BVJ said innocent civilians in Balochistan, particularly youths, are allegedly being forcibly disappeared from their homes, educational institutions and public roads, and taken to secret detention centres, where they are subjected to severe torture, the organisation alleged.
It further alleged that many of those forcibly disappeared are killed in custody, and their deaths are later portrayed as encounters. BVJ called on the United Nations and international human rights organisations to conduct an immediate and transparent investigation into the six unidentified bodies, establish their identities, and determine whether they were among those previously forcibly disappeared.