ABDUL Latif Baloch, a prominent Baloch journalist, has become the latest victim ofPakistan’s“kill and dump” policy inBalochistan after he was brutally shot dead in front of his wife and children inside his home in Mashkay, atehsilofAwarandistrictinBalochistan province,bystate-backeddeathsquads, on Saturday. AbdulLatifwasmorethanajournalist in a war-torn region and was regarded as a voice for the oppressed, a documentorofBaloch suffering,resistance, and courage.In a land where speaking truth is punished with bullets, his reporting made him a target of a state that views journalism as treason. Experts reckon that his assassination is not an isolated incident and is part of Pakistan’s ongoing “kill and dump”operation,a genocidal policy to eraseBalochidentityandsilenceallwho resist. Just a few months ago, Abdul Latif’s son,SaifBaloch,along with sevenotherfamilymembers,wereforcibly disappearedby security forces and later killed — a horrifying indicator of howentirefamiliesaremarkedforelimination.

 

The wave of enforced disappearances and targeted shooting in Balochistan continues to intensify. In recent days, the killings of Younus Rasool and Sajid Baloch have once again revealed the terrifying scope of state violence across the region. On May 17, Younus Rasool, sonofRasoolBakhshandaresident of Malar Bangul Bazar in district Awaran, was forcibly disappeared in a midnightraid by Pakistani military forces. During the operation, his family members were tortured, harassed, and threatened by Frontier Corps (FC) personnel and state-backed militias known locally as “death squads”. His mutilated body was found the next day. Earlier this week, another young man, Sajid Baloch, son ofNasirBalochfromGushanag Kolwah, also in Awaran, was forcibly disappeared under similar circumstances. His mutilated and tortured body was later found dumpedbythe roadside, a grim signature of Pakistan’s “kill-and-dump” strategy. “These are not isolated incidents.

 

The Pakistani state has embraced a hardline policy of suppression, operating with complete disregard for constitutionalrights, due process, or human dignity.Under the pretence of security, Baloch lives arebeingsystematicallyerased. The situation has reached a critical humanitarian tipping point,” said a Baloch activist. Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) also demanded urgent international attention and calledupontheUnitedNations, global media, and press freedom watchdogs to break their silence and act against these crimesagainsthumanitytotake urgent notice of the atrocities in Balochistan, asserting that the lives of Baloch civilians, students, labourers, activists, and children, are under immediatethreatfromanunchecked campaign of state terror.