UN Experts Demand Answers Over Imran Ali’s Death in Custody

UN experts urged authorities to locate and properly identify Ali’s remains, conduct independent forensic examinations and return his body to his family with dignity.

UN human rights experts have called on Pakistan to investigate the alleged enforced disappearance, torture and extrajudicial killing of Imran Ali, whose family spent nearly a year without official information about his detention before learning that he had reportedly been killed while in custody.

Ali was taken from his apartment on 27 August 2025 by around 20 people identified as agents of the Counter-Terrorism Department and transported to an undisclosed location, according to the experts. His relatives received no formal confirmation of his detention, fate or whereabouts, even though former detainees later told the family that they had seen him in custody. Reports shared with the experts also suggest that Ali was tortured for several days after being detained.

The experts said that depriving someone of liberty and then refusing to acknowledge their detention, or concealing where they are being held, amounts to enforced disappearance. Such treatment removes a person from the protection of the law and breaches one of the most fundamental rules of international law.

A Family Learns of His Death at a Hearing

The first official indication of what had happened reportedly came on 6 August 2026, when a police officer told Pakistan's Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances that Ali had been killed during an alleged encounter in May. Authorities said it took about a month to identify his body and claimed they could not preserve his remains, leading to his burial in June without the family's knowledge.

After hearing this disclosure, Ali's relatives visited the Civil Hospital in Quetta and identified him through photographs kept in hospital records. The fact that they had to discover his death in this manner has deepened concerns about how his detention, reported killing and burial were handled.

UN experts urged authorities to locate and properly identify Ali's remains, conduct independent forensic examinations and return his body to his family with dignity. They said an investigation must establish the cause, manner and full circumstances of his death, identify everyone responsible and create a credible path towards accountability.

Six Other Unidentified Bodies Raise Wider Fears

Ali's body was reportedly brought to the hospital alongside six other bodies, none of which were properly documented or reported by hospital employees or police. All seven were buried without complete identification or notification being given to their families.

This discovery has raised fears that the six unidentified people could also have been victims of enforced disappearance, particularly because many families in Balochistan continue searching for relatives who vanished after being detained or taken away.

The experts called for a prompt, thorough, independent and impartial inquiry covering Ali's disappearance, alleged torture, death and burial. A credible investigation, they stressed, cannot rely solely on accounts from the agencies implicated in the case and must include reliable forensic work, transparent documentation and meaningful participation by the family.

Experts Warn of an Escalating Pattern in Balochistan

Ali's case appears to form part of a broader pattern of alleged abuses against Baloch people, according to the experts, who pointed to reports of unlawful detention, enforced disappearance, torture and extrajudicial killing linked to intensified military and security operations across Balochistan.

Concerns also surround the use of vague and broadly written counter-terrorism provisions, which can expose activists, community members and other civilians to detention without clear evidence or adequate legal safeguards. Allegations of collective punishment have added to fears that entire communities are being treated as security threats.

UN experts publicly raised related concerns in March and April 2025, followed by another intervention in July 2026 concerning the life sentence imposed on a Baloch woman human rights defender. They are now communicating with the Government of Pakistan about Ali's case and the wider human rights situation in the province.