Geneva, September 4, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
UN human rights experts have expressed grave concern over the alleged enforced disappearance, torture and extrajudicial killing of Baloch civilian Imran Ali by Pakistani forces, calling on Islamabad to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation into his detention and death.
The experts said 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.
According to the experts, authorities took about a month to identify Ali’s body. They reportedly said they were unable to preserve his remains and subsequently buried him in June.
The experts said Ali was allegedly abducted from his home on August 27, 2025, by around 20 personnel from Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Department and taken to an undisclosed location. His family was not provided official information about his whereabouts or fate for a year. Former detainees who had reportedly been held with Ali later confirmed that he had been in custody and was allegedly tortured for several days.
“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,” the experts said, describing such conduct as a violation of international law.
They also raised concerns over the discovery of Ali’s body alongside six other unidentified bodies at a hospital. The bodies were reportedly neither properly documented nor reported by hospital staff or police before being buried without identification or notification to relatives.
The experts said the possibility that the other bodies could belong to victims of enforced disappearances should also be investigated.
They called for an independent and impartial probe, including forensic examinations, proper identification of the remains and their dignified return to Ali’s family. The investigation, they said, should establish the cause and circumstances of his death and identify those responsible.
The experts warned that Ali’s alleged death was not an isolated case, but part of what they described as a broader pattern of unlawful detention, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings targeting Baloch people.
They linked the alleged violations to intensified military and security operations in Balochistan and reports of collective punishment by Pakistani authorities.
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