Key takeaways
- Rakhshan Division Commissioner Asad Ullah Kakar was abducted by armed men on the Noshki-Kharan highway on Thursday. It is the second abduction of a senior Balochistan officer on the same stretch of road in a month.
Unknown armed men have abducted the commissioner of Balochistan’s Rakhshan Division, the second senior civil administration officer seized on the same stretch of highway in as many months.
Asad Ullah Kakar, a Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS) officer who heads the province’s largest division by area, was intercepted on Thursday while travelling from Quetta to Kharan in a private car, officials told Dawn. The attackers blocked the Noshki-Kharan highway in the Barshonki area and stopped his vehicle.
According to Kharan police, the kidnappers initially took the commissioner, his driver and their vehicle with them. The driver was later released, and it was he who alerted officials about the abduction after reaching Kharan, a senior police official said.
Kakar was travelling without a security squad and in a personal vehicle rather than an official one — a precaution officials say was meant to keep his identity and movements concealed on a road already known to be dangerous. The area where he was seized is roughly the same spot on the highway where Kharan’s Deputy Commissioner Munir Ahmed Soomro was abducted last month.
The provincial government had neither officially confirmed the abduction nor issued a statement by Friday morning, according to the Balochistan press. No group had publicly claimed responsibility.
Why it matters
The abduction cuts at the authority of the provincial administration in one of its largest jurisdictions. Two senior PAS officers seized on the same corridor within weeks — and the fact that a divisional commissioner travelled unescorted and in a private car to avoid drawing attention — signal how thin the state’s writ has grown along this stretch of road.
It also piles pressure on the Balochistan government and law-enforcement agencies to secure the Quetta-Kharan corridor, which connects the provincial capital to one of its major districts. The provincial government’s silence in the hours after the incident became public will itself invite scrutiny.
The two abductions follow a broader pattern of militant violence in Balochistan, where security forces, officials and infrastructure have repeatedly been targeted.
What’s next
A search operation is expected along the Noshki-Kharan corridor, and the provincial government is likely to face calls to issue its first official account of the incident. Attention will now focus on whether Kakar is recovered safely, whether officials acknowledge a security gap on the highway, and whether any group claims responsibility for the abduction.
Sources
- Dawn, “Rakhshan commissioner ‘abducted’” (October 16, 2026)
- Daily Qudrat, “Commissioner Rakhshan Division Asadullah Kakar Abducted Along With Driver Near Kharan, Balochistan” (October 16, 2026)
