New Delhi: Karima Baloch, former president of Baloch Students Organization-Azad (BSO-Azad), is the second major Baloch campaigner found dead in a foreign country this year.
Eminent Baloch activist Karima Baloch was found dead under unclear circumstances in the city of Toronto, Canada, a day after she was reported missing by local police.
Karima Baloch, former chairperson of Baloch Students Organization-Azad (BSO-Azad), is the second major Baloch campaigner found dead in a foreign country this year. In April, the body of Baloch journalist Sajid Hussain Baloch was found outside Uppsala in Sweden, when he went missing.
Toronto police had reported that 37-year-old Karima went missing on December 20 in the city’s coastal area. Police later said she was “located”, but did not provide more details.
Karima’s death was reported by both the Balochistan Times and The Balochistan Post, leading news websites for the Baloch community. The Balochistan Times reported that she was “found dead in Toronto” and said that her “family has not given more details and asked for privacy”.
“Sudden and unexplained disappearance and death have raised serious concerns,” the Balochistan Post reported. Other reports stated that Karima’s husband Hammal Hyder and her brother identified the body.
Amnesty International said in a tweet, “The death of activist #KarimaBaloch in Toronto, Canada is deeply shocking and should be investigated immediately and effectively. Criminals must be brought to justice without capital punishment.”
Karima was included in the BBC’s list of 100 inspirational and influential women for 2016, describing her as a “campaigner for the independence of Balochistan from Pakistan”. She fled to Pakistan in 2016, said she feared her life due to threats from the military and intelligence agencies and took refuge in Canada.
She was seen as a pioneer of women’s activism in Balochistan and raised the issue of Balochistan in UN sessions in Switzerland. In 2014, she became the first female chairperson of BSO-Azad, recognized by the Government of Pakistan as a terrorist group.
According to Canadian media reports, Karima’s asylum request was suspended in 2016 by the Ottawa province of Canada due to his involvement in BSO-Azad’s “sabotage” against the government of Pakistan.
In 2016, Karima recorded a video message on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, in which he called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “brother” and asked him to be the voice of the Baloch movement. It was the day when Modi raised the Balochistan issue in his Independence Day speech.
“We appeal to you, as our brother, to speak in international forums about genocide and war crimes in Balochistan and be the voice of the Baloch sisters … We will fight it on our own, that’s all we want You become the voice of our struggle, ”Karima said in the message.
In an event organized by Baloch Canadians in Toronto in 2018, to claim the 70th anniversary of illegal occupation of Balochistan by Pakistan, Karima said: “We want India to take up the issue as a human right.” He felt that this was an “important role” that India could play as atrocities against the Baloch were not on the world’s radar.
Karima also said at the time that India had access to what it described as a “massacre” of the Baloch people.
Baloch journalist Sajid Hussain Baloch was reported missing in Sweden in March and his body was later found in a river. His family and friends alleged that he was murdered. Reporters Without Borders (RSF), without journalists’ organization, said his mysterious disappearance and subsequent death could have been organized by Pakistani intelligence agencies because of his work as a journalist.