Balochistan Activist Karima Baloch Found Dead In Canada Under Mysterious Circumstances: Report

Activist Karima Baloch, a harsh critic of the Pakistan Army and the government atrocities in Balochistan, was found dead in Toronto, Canada, according to the Balochistan Post.

According to media reports, the police found her body drowned off in Harbourfront near Toronto's lakeshore.

Karima was last spotted around 3 pm on Sunday before she went missing. Toronto police sought the public's help for locating her body.

The body, which is still with the police, was identified by her husband, Hammal Haider, and her brother, as reported by India Today. The cause of her death is yet to be known.

Earlier in 2016, Karima had escaped from Balochistan with the help of a few friends and Baloch activists when her life was allegedly in danger.

Karima had been vocal about ex-Pakistan Army officers settling down in Canada and was one of the most vocal proponents of Balochistan's independence from the Pakistani occupation, noted the media report.

The Canadian refugee was also declared as one of the world's 100 most "inspirational and influential" women in 2016 by the BBC.

She was a pioneer of women activism in Balochistan. In an interview in May 2019, she had accused Pakistan of taking away the resources and eliminating the people of Balochistan, the province with immense geo-strategic importance and untapped natural resource reserves.

Karima had also sent a Raksha Bandhan message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 through Twitter.

Meanwhile, the Baloch National Movement (BNM) has announced forty days of mourning for Karima Baloch.

The spokesperson of the BNM said that the martyrdom of Karima Baloch, a BNM leader and former chairperson of Baloch Student Organisation (BSO), is a great loss to the Baloch nation and the national movement.

The sudden death of the activist has raised several serious concerns, according to Balochistan Post. This is not the first case of death of Balochistani dissident, as in May, Baloch journalist Sajid Hussain was found dead in Sweden. He was reportedly missing since March 2.

Reporters without Borders (RSF), a Paris-based journalists' organisation, alleged that Hussain's mysterious disappearance and death could have been organised by the Pakistani intelligence agencies like the ISI and MI (Military Intelligence).

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