Renowned Balochistan activist, Karima Baloch, who had escaped from Pakistan a few years back and sought refuse in Canada, was found dead under mysterious circumstances, reports The Balochistan Post. She was last seen on Sunday, December 20, 2020 at around 3 PM in the Bay Street and Queens Quay West area in Toronto.
Baloch has been a vocal critic of Pakistani Army and the atrocities carried out by Pakistani government on Baloch citizens. She is believed to be one of the most prominent women leaders from Balochistan and had also raised the issue of Balochistan at United Nations sessions in Switzerland.
She had recently accused the Justin Trudeau government in Canada of facilitating Pakistani army officials by giving them refuge.
“I belong to students organisation in Balochistan. I have seen bodies of so many of my friends whose bodies can also not be identified. These bodies were returned by this (Pakistani) army which believes in brutality. They had poured acid over the bodies. Now the same army is taking asylum in Canada. The army that entered our house and killed us, raped us, took away our children, the same army is given refuge and facilities. So that they become more equipped to kill us,” she called out Canadian government.
Recounting the Pakistani army’s brutality on Bangladeshi people, she had said the same brutality is being conferred on the people of Balochistan since 1947-48. “The same war crimes, same genocide, same kidnapping women and making them sex slaves. The same Muslim army is being given refuge by Iqra Khalid,” she said. Iqra Khalid is Pakistan-born Canadian MP.
Earlier this year, another Baloch activist, Sajid Hussain, went missing in Sweden. His body was recovered from a river. His friends and family believe he was murdered. Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based journalists’ organisation had raised concerns that Pakistani intelligence agency ISI could have a hand in Hussain’s disappearance and subsequent death because of his work as a journalist.
