Karima Baloch's body being illegally escorted in Pakistan, family detained, claims activist

A prominent Baloch activist, Lateef Johar Baloch, on Sunday claimed that human rights activist Karima Baloch's body is being forcefully escorted in Pakistan without the consent of her family members.

Raising alarms bells, the Baloch activist alleged that dozens of military vehicles are illegally escorting Karima's body to an "unknown destination." He further said that Pakist authorities have detained her family as well. While slamming the Canadian government, Johar asked for the handover of slain activist's body to her family.

"Pakist authorities took Karima Baloch's body along with her family from Karachi airport to an unknown location. We don't know where they are taking them," Lateef Johar tweeted.

"Pakist authorities have refused to handover of Karima Baloch's body to her family. This is wrong, unacceptable and against humty. Why is Pakistan afraid of a body? Pakist authorities must spare Karima Baloch's family from more agony and handover the body right away," he said and tagged the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the same.

Recently Pakistan affairs expert Tarek Fatah, and scholar Burzine Waghmar had slammed the crackdown on dissent in Balochistan and urged the Canadian Government to reconsider diplomatic relations with Pakistan.

Speaking to a Canadian News outlet recently, Waghmar said that there has been a systematic campaign by the Pakist state elements to "liquidate any and every Baloch voice."

"We have seen nothing official come out of Ottawa on this count. Not even the Pakist High Commissioner in Ottawa has been called into the foreign ministry for an explication on this. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," he said.

Fatah, who is also leading the Friends For Karima Baloch committee, called for Karima's death to not be considered a suicide stating that "there is no reason to" do so. "There was no reason for her to commit suicide. She had her whole life ahead of her," he said.

In December 2020, Karima, a prominent Baloch voice, was found dead a day she went missing in Toronto. The Baloch activists' death sparked protests across Europe and North America as the Baloch diaspora took to the streets in Toronto, Berlin and Netherlands calling on the Canadian government to investigate.

Baloch had campaigned vigorously against the disappearances and human rights violations in the troubled Balochistan province of Pakistan. Requesting the United Nations to intervene, Baloch Human Rights Council in a letter had said Pakistan has "responded violently to the genuine demands of the Baloch people".

( With inputs from ANI )