Karima Baloch

Kancha Baloch Blogs by Asghar Ali

Banuk Karima Baloch (1983–2020) was a Baloch human rights activist and Pakistani dissident.She campaigned for independence of Balochistan from Pakistan and appeared in BBC’s list of 100 inspirational and influential women for 2016.

    Banuk Karima Baloch 

Career[edit]

She started her career as activist in 2005, in Balochistan's Turbat area, where she attended a protest over missing persons carrying the picture of one of her missing relatives.  Later she joined the Baloch Students Organization (BSO-Azad) in 2006, serving in several different positions in the following years and became the chairperson of BSO-Azad in 2015.

In an interview in 2014, she said 

For us, peaceful struggle has been turned into a lethal poison. During the previous three years, many of our members have been brutally killed and thousands have been abducted. Two months back, the chairman of my organization was kidnapped right in front of my eyes. Before that, in 2009, the vice-chairman of our organization Zakir Majeed was kidnapped by the secret services while he was attending a crowded procession. He is still missing. [...] the noose has been tightened around our necks.

In 2016, Karima was chosen as one of BBC's 100 Women as a political activist who "campaigns for independence for Balochistan from Pakistan".  Dad Shah and Hatun Bibi inspired her. 

In 2015, Baloch went into exile after terrorism charges were filed against her.  She was granted asylum in 2016 in Canada where she lived until her death in 2020. 

Family

Karima had a brother, Sameer, and sister, Mahganj. In Toronto, she married a fellow activist, Hamal Baloch. Several members of Ms Baloch's extended family have been linked to the Baloch resistance movement.

Death and investigation

Karima Baloch was last seen on 20 December 2020. On 22 December 2020, she was found dead in Toronto.  According to police, she drowned in Lake Ontario. 

Protests demanding an investigation into her death were seen in Balochistan and Canada.

Canadian police said they were aware of the concerns around Baloch's death but they had found no evidence of foul play after her body was pulled from the lake on Monday.  The police concluded that the death of Baloch was "non-criminal".