Geneva: The United Nations experts on Friday expressed grave concern over the alleged enforced disappearance, torture, and extrajudicial killing of Baloch civilian Imran Ali by Pakistani forces in Balochistan and called on Islamabad to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation into the circumstances surrounding his detention and death.
The experts noted that during a hearing before Pakistan’s Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances last month, a police officer stated that Ali had been killed in an alleged encounter in May 2026.
They highlighted that it took authorities approximately one month to identify his body. Authorities claimed they were unable to preserve Ali’s remains and subsequently buried him in June 2026.
According to the experts, on August 27, 2025, Ali was abducted from his residence by approximately 20 agents from Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Department and was taken to an undisclosed location.
His family received no official information regarding his fate or whereabouts for one year, while individuals formerly detained with Ali confirmed after their release that he had been held in custody. Ali was reportedly tortured for several days while in detention, the experts mentioned.
“Any deprivation of liberty followed by the authorities’ refusal to acknowledge the detention or by the concealment of the fate or whereabouts of that person is an enforced disappearance, and it places victims outside the protection of the law, in violation of a peremptory norm of international law,” they added.
The experts said that Ali’s body was reportedly brought to the hospital alongside six other bodies, none of which were documented or reported by hospital staff or police. The bodies were buried without proper identification or notification to the families.
“Given the pattern of enforced disappearances in Balochistan, there are serious concerns that the other bodies may also belong to victims of enforced disappearances,” the experts noted.
“The enforced disappearance of Imran Ali and his death in custody must be subject to a prompt, thorough, independent, and impartial investigation. Such an investigation must include independent forensic examinations, proper identification of the body, and its dignified return to the family. It should establish the cause, manner, and circumstances of Ali’s death, while identifying those responsible, with a view to ensuring accountability,” they added.
The experts warned that Ali’s death is not an isolated incident but reflective of a pattern of what appears to be a widespread and escalating practice of unlawful detention, including on the basis of “vague and overbroad counter-terrorism provisions, torture, enforced disappearance, and extrajudicial killing” of Baloch people.
They said that these violations followed reports of intensified Pakistani military and security operations in Balochistan, amid widespread allegations of “collective punishment” by Pakistani authorities.
–IANS
