Quetta [Pakistan], December 28 (ANI): Pakistan is facing a serious humanitarian crisis as families of people reported missing in Balochistan staged protests outside the Quetta Press Club on Saturday, urging authorities to disclose the whereabouts of their relatives, The Balochistan Post reported.

The protesters said many families have been living in uncertainty for years due to alleged enforced disappearances. They described the situation as a 'serious humanitarian crisis', saying the prolonged lack of information has caused 'severe mental anguish' to parents, wives and children of the missing persons.

According to the families, authorities have not shared any confirmed details, and the missing individuals have not been presented before any court.

They said this uncertainty has led to continuous psychological stress and fear. The protesters added that detaining citizens without legal process and keeping families uninformed was 'unacceptable' and against basic principles of justice, The Balochistan Post quoted.

They also said the issue goes beyond personal loss and raises larger concerns about human rights, constitutional safeguards and the rule of law.

Claiming that local institutions have failed to address their appeals, the families called on international human rights organisations to intervene.

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Meanwhile, the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) said on Saturday that Shehzad Munir, a resident of Heronk who was allegedly forcibly disappeared from Quetta on November 5, 2025, has been released. Earlier, his family had blocked the M-8 highway in Kech district to press for his recovery.

The protest in Quetta comes days after another sit-in in Kech district, where families blocked the CPEC highway in Tejaban for three days over the alleged disappearance of four members of the same family, including two women. The sit-in ended on Thursday evening after Deputy Commissioner Kech Bashir Ahmed Barech assured families that steps were being taken for the 'early recovery' of the missing persons.

Reacting to the disappearance of the two women, journalist and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) co-chair Munizae Jahangir termed such cases a grave offence, The Balochistan post reported.

She said the incidents amounted to 'a serious crime under Pakistani law as well as international law', and warned that the disappearance of a pregnant woman and a 17-year-old girl had 'increased public mistrust' in state institutions.

'When someone becomes a victim of enforced disappearance, it places the family under immense distress and creates resentment among the people of Balochistan toward the state,' she said.

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'Pakistan already has a judicial system. If someone is suspected of wrongdoing, the state has the right to arrest them through legal means.'

'Acts of enforced disappearance are condemnable, as they are violations of Pakistan's Constitution and international human rights,' Jahangir added. (ANI)