Another Baloch voice becomes silent; Karima Baloch found dead

New Delhi, Dec 22: Karima Baloch, an activist, who had been vocal about the atrocities and violations executed by the Pakistan Army and government in Balochistan, has been found dead in Toronto, Canada.

 

Karima Baloch, is renowned name in Balochistan and is believed to be the pioneer of feminine activism there. She had also raised the issue of Balochistan in the United Nations sessions in Switzerland. Karima Baloch was also listed among the world’s 100 most 'inspirational and influential' women in 2016.

 

One of the most recent and serious accusations that Baloch had made on the Pakistani siyasat was through an interview in May 2019, when she had accused Pakistan of taking away the resources and eliminating the people of Balochistan, the province with immense geo-strategic importance and huge untapped natural resource reserves.

 

About the recent unfortunate incident, Toronto Police had requested for public assistance in locating Karima Baloch since she was reported to have gone missing on Sunday. However, later her family has confirmed that Karima's body has been found.

 

Toronto police had stated that Baloch was last seen on Dec 20, in the Bay Street and Queens Quay West area in Toronto. Baloch’s family later after discovering her body, had requested for privacy.

 

 

Although much details about Baloch's case are not yet known, but the sudden demise of a strong Baloch personality like that of Karima's is not an isolated incident. This year in March, Sajid Hussain, the Founder and Chief Editor of 'The Balochistan Post', who had consistently been covering human rights violations that the Balochis were being subjected to, was also found dead in the Fyris River near Uppsala, Sweden. He had gone missing for days before his body was found.

 

Karima Baloch's recent update in opposition to the Pakistani atrocities in Balochistan was through her last tweet of Dec 14, that notified that she had shared a news report by The Guardian titled ‘Kidnap, torture, murder: the plight of Pakistan’s thousands of disappeared’.

 

Certain Pakistani elements on social media have been trying to portray how India is responsible for the death of the Balochi activist. However, considering the repercussions of the work of Karima Baloch, ending a strong voice like that of hers through a fearsome act like this one can never be something that India would do.

 

The social media elements who are trying desperately to link the incident with India have been a failure in considering an important aspect of Baloch's personality that her being alive was a threat only to Pakistan's govt and their army and they could be the only ones to benefit from her death.