*Islamabad / Washington* — The *US State Department’s “Pakistan 2024 HumanRights Report”* has revealed that there was no significant improvement inthe country’s human rights situation during the past year, while seriousviolations continued unabated.
According to the report, Pakistan witnessed *extrajudicial killings,enforced disappearances, torture, inhumane treatment, and cross-borderpolitical pressure*. It further noted restrictions on religious freedom,severe curbs on freedom of expression and media, increased violence againstjournalists, arbitrary arrests, and heightened censorship.
The report stated that militant groups and non-state actors — whether localor foreign — continued to commit acts of violence, promote religious andsocial intolerance, and violate human rights, thereby fueling lawlessnessin the country. *Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan* saw a sharp rise interrorist attacks, targeting civilians, security personnel, and police,resulting in hundreds of deaths.
While the military, police, and other law enforcement agencies conductedlarge-scale operations against militant and terrorist groups, the reportemphasized that the government took *few transparent or effective actions*against officials involved in human rights abuses.
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Human rights activists described the report as a *serious warning*,stressing the urgent need for concrete measures to safeguard human rightsand uphold the rule of law in Pakistan. According to rights organizations,the *“kill and dump”* policy persisted in Balochistan, whereanti-government elements were abducted, tortured, and killed, with theirbodies later dumped. Many of the victims reportedly belonged tomarginalized ethnic and linguistic minority communities.
The report also highlighted that there was little to no evidence oftransparent investigations or accountability for those responsible. Whilesome cases were taken up by the *Inspector General of Police* or the *NationalCommission for Human Rights (NCHR)*, legal outcomes remained rare.