ZEESHAN Baloch, a 21-year-old student and resident of Khudabadan, Panjgur in Balochistan, was extra-judicially killed on Monday after his enforced disappearance by a “Pakistan-backed death squad,” according to a human rights organisation. Zeeshan was the son of Zaheer Ahmed, who himself has been forcibly disappeared since April 13, 2015, and remains missing until now. “Tragically, today morning, around 9:00 am, the family received devastating news: Zeeshan’s bullet-riddled body was discovered near Surdu Ghareeb Nawaz Hotel. His body bore multiple gunshot wounds,” read a statement issued by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee.

 

The BYC asserted that the “targeted killing of Zeeshan, who had already endured the trauma of growing up without his father due to enforced disappearance, illustrates the multigenerational cycle of violence and repression inflicted on Baloch families by Pakistani authorities.” Earlier in the day, several human rights organisations called for the immediate release of Zeeshan after his abduction on Sunday late evening from Football Chowk, Panjgur. They said that Zeeshan was the victim of enforced disappearance by a “state-backed death squad.”