Twenty Police Trainees Abducted by Armed Men in Balochistan, Pakistan

Quetta, October 17 (Daily Kiran) : In a troubling incident in Balochistan, Pakistan, twenty police trainees were abducted by unidentified gunmen on Saturday. The trainees were traveling in a passenger van along the Quetta-Karachi highway when they were intercepted by the armed group, according to local media reports citing police officials.

The trainees were returning home for the weekend after attending training at the Kalat police training center. A senior official from the Balochistan government, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the details to the Daily Dawn. He stated that the armed men struck while the trainees were en route, resulting in their abduction.

“Yes, twenty police personnel, who were heading home for the weekend, were taken from a passenger van on the Quetta-Karachi highway in Mastung,” the official said. The assailants, armed with automatic weapons, stopped the van and took the recruits to an undisclosed location, leaving the driver and three other passengers unharmed.

Police officials in Mastung also verified the kidnapping, noting that the trainees were associated with the Levies Force, which has since been incorporated into the police. The abducted individuals hailed from the Rakhshan division. Security forces have launched a search operation in the surrounding mountainous areas to locate the missing trainees, but no group has claimed responsibility for the abduction yet.

This incident follows the kidnapping of Asad Ullah Kakar, the commissioner of Rakhshan division, just a day earlier in the Kharn district. For years, residents in this turbulent province have taken to the streets to demand their rights, protesting against alleged military excesses and a lack of essential services. Such tensions have frequently led to clashes with Pakistani military forces.

The trend of abducting officials and police personnel has been ongoing. Recently, Munir Ahmed Soomro, the deputy commissioner of Kharn, was kidnapped but was released safely on October 3, approximately two weeks later, reportedly after negotiations between local tribal elders and the armed group responsible for his abduction.

In another incident on July 21, 2026, three officials from the Excise Department were kidnapped following an attack on a checkpoint in the Chagai district of Balochistan.