Baloch woman missing for 6 months presented as 'Suicide Attack Facilitator' in Quetta, rights groups raise concerns

Balochistan [Pakistan], April 21 (ANI): A Baloch woman who had been missing for almost six months after being taken from her home in Dalbandin, Balochistan, was presented by Pakistani authorities in Quetta as an alleged facilitator in a suicide attack, while her brother, who was detained alongside her, is still unaccounted for, according to a report by The Balochistan Post (TBP).

Rahima Bibi, daughter of Muhammad Rahim, was detained along with her younger brother, Zubair Ahmed, during a raid carried out on December 9, 2025. Since then, both had remained missing. Following their disappearance, family members and residents in Dalbandin staged protests and blocked key highways linking Quetta to the Iranian border, demanding their safe return. Despite assurances from authorities at the time, neither of them was produced before any court, as reported by TBP.

On Saturday, Rahima was brought before the media during a press conference in Quetta, where officials presented her as a suspect allegedly linked to the November 30 attack on the Frontier Corps headquarters in Nokundi.

The development has raised concerns among Baloch rights organisations and activists regarding the circumstances of her detention and public appearance.

PAANK, the human rights wing of the Baloch National Movement (BNM), stated that the case indicated what it described as a shift ‘from enforced disappearance to a staged narrative.’ ‘After nearly six months of enforced disappearance, Rahima has now been presented before the public as a so-called ‘suicide’ case,’ the group said. ‘This situation raises serious concerns about coercion, custodial pressure, and possible manipulation of facts,’ it added. The group further noted that her prolonged incommunicado detention, followed by her appearance in a controlled press interaction, reflects what it called a pattern of forced confessions, as cited in the TBP report.

Baloch Voice for Justice (BVJ) said that similar cases in Balochistan have followed what it described as a recurring pattern, where individuals are first disappeared, later reappear facing serious allegations, and are then presented through media channels without any transparent legal proceedings.

‘When individuals remain missing for extended periods and then suddenly appear in state custody with scripted narratives, it raises legitimate questions about the conditions under which these statements are obtained,’ the group said, referring to ‘so-called confessional statements’, as quoted by the TBP report.

Dr Sabiha Baloch said Rahima’s case raised ‘grave legal concerns,’ arguing that nearly six months of detention outside what she described as a ‘recognised judicial framework’ undermined the credibility of any statement attributed to her. ‘A Baloch woman forcibly disappeared from her home, denied access to legal counsel and family, and held for months before being presented as a ‘suicide bomber’ cannot be presumed to have made a voluntary statement,’ she wrote, as quoted by the TBP report. (ANI)