Pakistani deep state hand in Karima Baloch’s mysterious death?

The mysterious death of leading Baloch activist Karima Baloch in Toronto yesterday has sent shock waves through the community which was still struggling to recover from the killing of another dissident – Baloch journalist Sajid Hussain in Sweden – in similar circumstances earlier this year. A former chairperson of the Baloch Student Organization Azad, Karima was found dead a day after being reported missing. Named by the BBC as one of the world's 100 most "inspirational and influential" women in 2016, the 37-year-old had sought refuge in Canada after escaping the "oppression" and "terrorism" at the hands of the <a href="https://indianarrative.com/balochistan/pakistani-deep-states-barbarism-unleashed-on-the-balochs-yet-again-32387.html"><strong>Pakistani government and army in Balochistan</strong></a>. Only recently, Karima had expressed fear for the lives of Balochs settled in Canada and criticised the Justin Trudeau government for allowing Pakistani radical elements and Army officials to settle down in the country.

"Karima Baloch, the exiled Balochistan leader whose dead body was found at Harbourfront Toronto, speaks her mind against the Pakistan Army officers who are being settled in Canada. Today, her dead body echoes the warnings she gave in this speech last year. Karima Baloch was a courageous and wise woman," tweeted prominent Pakistani-Canadian journalist Tarek Fatah while tagging the speech Karima gave to raise an alarm over the growing presence of Pakistani officials in Canada.

https://indianarrative.com/world/revealed-the-sinister-motive-behind-fencing-balochistans-gwadar-43351.html

The Pakistanis are also highlighting the striking similarities between the death of Karima and journalist Sajid Hussain in Sweden. Hussain, the chief editor of the Balochistan Times, went missing north of Stockholm on March 2 and his body was fished out of Fyris river on April 23.

Reporters without borders (RSF), a Paris-based journalists’ organisation said that it had obtained "confidential information" of a "list of Pakistani dissidents who are now refugees in other countries currently circulating within Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)," the most powerful of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies.

"In his work as a journalist, Sajid Hussain made a name for himself by covering drug trafficking, human rights violations, enforced disappearances and insurrectionary activity in Balochistan, the Pakistani province where he was from. These are all sensitive subjects for which he could have been the victim of a reprisal. It was because of his reporting that he fled Pakistan eight years ago," said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-46752" src="https://indianarrative.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Karima-Baloch-Sajid-Hussain.jpg" alt="Karima Baloch Death" />

One month before Hussain's disappearance, Ahmad Waqass Goraya, a Pakistani blogger living in self-imposed exile in the Netherlands, was attacked and threatened outside his Rotterdam home by two individuals speaking Urdu. “This attack fits the modus operandi of Pakistani spy agencies,” he had told RSF.

On June 29, the United Nations' human rights experts had condemned the widespread silencing of human rights defenders “through intimidation, secret detention, torture and enforced disappearance, whether with the direct involvement of the <a href="https://indianarrative.com/world/pashtun-leader-ali-wazirs-arrest-jolts-pakistan-45943.html">Pakistani government,</a> or with its complicity or complacency.”

The statement mentioned <a href="https://indianarrative.com/world/human-rights-day-2020-us-blacklists-pakistan-again-for-persecuting-minorities-38903.html"><strong>Pakistan’s long history of enforced disappearances</strong></a>, many of which have targeted human rights and minority defenders critical of the government and the military, as well as persons suspected or accused of involvement in the opposition.

<img class="wp-image-46747 size-large" src="https://indianarrative.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Karima-Baloch-Death-1024×621.jpg" alt="Karima Baloch" width="525" height="318" /> Baloch activist Karima Baloch during a protest rally in Toronto

India Narrative had in July revealed a leaked internal memo issued by the Interior Ministry of Pakistan listing measures to stop the “rhetoric against Pakistan” and targeting people living abroad.

The memo dated June 18, addressed to the Director-General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Islamabad, the Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting, the Director-General of Military Intelligence, Islamabad, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, mentioned targeting those Pakistanis who are "involved in various activities in Europe and America which are seriously damaging Pakistan's foreign interests abroad."

https://indianarrative.com/balochistan/pakistani-deep-states-barbarism-unleashed-on-the-balochs-yet-again-32387.html

On Tuesday, after Karima Baloch's death, a file video clip of an interview of Pakistan's former military dictator Pervez Musharraf has also gone viral on social media in which the former President is seen justifying assassinations of "traitors" abroad.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">The convicted former dictator, Pervaiz Musharraf in whose regime the Kill & Dump policy was initiated in Balochistan, had confessed and boasted that;
we may kill the political dissidents abroad like other agencies.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/karimabaloch?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#karimabaloch</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StateKilledKarimaBaloch?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StateKilledKarimaBaloch</a>
<a href="https://t.co/Ftb8zSF4ot">pic.twitter.com/Ftb8zSF4ot</a></p>
— Zahu Baloch (@BalochZahu) <a href="https://twitter.com/BalochZahu/status/1341159897292034055?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
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It is thus not very surprising that the Pakistani government and the military establishment is in the line of fire after the death of another activist abroad.

"Pakistani dissidents being killed in the Western block for the first time. First it was #SajidBaloch in Sweden and now it is #KarimaBaloch in Canada," tweeted a Baloch living in the US.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Karima Baloch <a href="https://twitter.com/KarimaBaloch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KarimaBaloch</a> had raised alarms about Pakistan Army officials settling in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Canada?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Canada</a> & questioned Canadian govt for allowing this.</p>
She feared that this will lead to attacks against Baloch in Canada.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KarimaBaloch?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KarimaBaloch</a> has been found dead today. <a href="https://t.co/TuLpQB7EYo">pic.twitter.com/TuLpQB7EYo</a>

— Fazila Baloch?☀️ (@IFazilaBaloch) <a href="https://twitter.com/IFazilaBaloch/status/1341146801777328130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
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"Journalists, activists whoever revealed the atrocities that are going on in #Balochistan, have been abducted & killed by rogue Pak ISI, WHEREVER they are!" said Sajeda Akhtar, another Baloch activist.

Meanwhile enforced disappearances and targeted killings of minorities, human rights defenders critical of the government continue to rise alarmingly in Pakistan. Experts believe that Karima's death will only intensify the movement further.

"Karima Baloch, another human rights activist lost. Situation of Human Rights in Pakistan. Ali Wazir of PTM arrested. PDM distracted. Another minority girl kidnapped. Imran Khan busy selling Bhaarat dushman chooran and more," tweeted Pakistani social media activist Arif Aajakia.

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