After the US invasion of Afghanistanin 2001, forced disappearance in Pakistan allegedly began during the rule of military dictator General Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan went under immense terrorist activities. A large number of people became the victim of suicidal attacks. During Musharraf's tenure, during 'War on Terror', many people were suspected as terrorists and then taken away by Govt agencies. Many of them were then handed over to the United States authorities to be imprisoned in the Guantanamo Bay's Camp X-Ray. After Musharaf resigned in August 2008, he was charged with various human rights violations. According to Amina Masood Janjua, a human right's activist and chairperson of , a Nonprofit organization working against enforced disappearance there are more than 5000 reported cases of enforced disappearance in Pakistan, however, she asserts that the number of unreported cases is much higher. On the other hand, according to government, this figures is inflated.
From 2009 to present
According to Dawn newspaper report, in the first seven months of 2016, there were 510 reports of forced disappearance in Pakistan. In 2011, a Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances was formed to investigate the cases of forced disappearances. According to Amnesty International, the commission has so far received 3,000 cases of such disappearances.
Zeenat Shahzadi: Zeenat Shahzadi, a 24-year-old female journalist who was investigating a disappearance case, was allegedly abducted by some armed personnel on 19 August 2015 and went missing. Her disappearance caused her younger brother to commit suicide. She was later recovered from near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in October 2017.
Five online activists: In early January 2017, five social media activists – Salman Haider, Ahmad Waqass Goraya, Aasim Saeed, and Ahmad Raza Naseer – went missing from different parts of Pakistan. Salman Haider was also a poet and academic. However, after few days, all of the bloggers returned to their homes. Their families confirmed their return and reported that all of the bloggers were unharmed.
Some have reported to have been handed over to the CIA and/or flown to Bagram, Afghanistan and later shipped off to Guantanamo Bay. Reports of forced abductions by the Pakistani state first began arising in 2001, in the aftermath of the United States invasion of Afghanistan and the commencement of the US-led War on Terror. Many of the missing persons are activists associated with the Baloch nationalist and Sindhi nationalist movements.
Balochistan
According to Voice for Baloch Missing Persons around 528 Baloch have gone missing from 2001 to 2017. A senior Pakistani provincial security official claims that missing person figures are 'exaggerated', that 'in Balochistan, insurgents, immigrants who fled to Europe and even those who have been killed in military operations are declared as missing persons'. Reports have shown that many people have fled the province to seek asylum in other countries because of the unrest caused by separatist militants. Similarly separatist militants have also been found responsible for enforced disappearances cases. Separatist militants usually wear military uniform while carrying out their militant activities. Hence they often get mistaken as security officials. As of 2018, the Pakistani state was using Islamist militants to crush Baloch separatists. Academics and journalists in the United States have been approached by Inter-Services Intelligence spies, who threatened them not to speak about the insurgency in Balochistan, as well as human rights abuses by the Pakistani Army, or else their families would be harmed.
Criticism
The cases of forced disappearances were criticized by human rights organizations and the media. They have urged the government of Pakistan to probe these incidents. In 2011, a Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances was formed, but there was little progress in the investigation.