Pak National Day 2025: Draconian Army & The War On Its Own People

The Pakistani Army intensifies crackdowns on Baloch nationalists, militarizing the region and committing documented human rights abuses.

- ASHISH SINGH

On a bright afternoon on March 16, 2025, Liaqat Baloch, a sixth-grade student, was walking home from his school near SBK University in Nushki District, Balochistan. He never arrived. Pakistani security forces had abducted Liaqat, along with ten others—including two classmates—accusing them, without evidence or trial, of supporting insurgent activities.

Stories like Liaqat's are now commonplace in Balochistan, a region at Pakistan's southwestern edge marked by mountains, deserts, and a searing conflict. For years, the Pakistani Army has escalated its harsh crackdown against Baloch nationalists demanding autonomy or independence, effectively militarizing the province and committing widespread human rights abuses documented extensively by international watchdogs.

According to the Human Rights Council of Balochistan, February 2025 alone witnessed 144 enforced disappearances and 46 extrajudicial killings. Victims range from students and shopkeepers to laborers and prominent activists, often whisked away by plainclothes officers operating alongside regular military forces. Enforced disappearance has emerged as the preferred tactic—people vanish into thin air, leaving families waiting, often forever, for their return or confirmation of their fate.

"The military wants to break us psychologically," said Aslam [name changed], whose brother disappeared in Kalat in early March. "We're tired, but we're not broken yet."