WASHINGTON, DC:
The Baloch American Congress (BAC) has said Pakistan authorities denial to hand over the body of Karima Baloch to her family at Karachi Airport proved Islamabad was one hundred percent culpable in her killing in Toronto last month. “The family of Karima Baloch was denied custody of her body and were threatened it would be sent back to Canada from Karachi Airport,” Dr. Tara Chand, president of the BAC, said in a press statement on Sunday.
“This should put to rest any doubts over who killed Karima Baloch as these actions prove Pakistan has Karima Baloch blood on her hands 100 percent.”, reiterated Dr. Tara Chand.
Karima Baloch, 37, was found drowned at Harbourfront waters on December 21, a day after she left Toronto home. Though Toronto Police called her death non-criminal, the victim’s family and Baloch activists insist they suspect foul play. Karima Baloch, who headed the Baloch Students Organization Azad, had escaped to Canada in November 2015 as her life was under threat from Pakistan’s military and intelligence services.
She continued to receive death threats one of which promised a “Christmas gift” just days before her death last month. “The heroine of Balochistan’s struggle for freedom deserved a befitting farewell, but the Pakistani authorities did not grant the Baloch people even the right to participate in her last rites,” the BAC president said. Dr Tara Chand said thousands of Baloch people wanted to show their last respects to the departed woman leader at a funeral prayer in Lyari Sunday and then take her body to her hometown of Tump in Makkuran for burial. “Her body was literally disappeared from Karachi Airport and secretively transported amid protests of her grieving family.
There is strict security and all forms of electronic communications have been shut down all over Makkuran.” Dr. Tara Chand recalled Pakistan had previously not handed the body of Nawab Akbar Bugti, former governor and chief minister of Balochistan, to his family after he was killed in 2006 in a military operation. “Likewise in 1974, the body of Asadullah Mengal, son of former chief minister Sardar Attaullah Mengal, was never returned after he was abducted from his home and killed by the Pakistani military and intelligence services.”
Dr Tara Chand said that Karima Baloch’s case exposes once again Pakistan’s continued violation of human rights in Balochistan. “To this day the state of Pakistan has not owned any responsibility for the killing of thousands of Baloch people and their leaders. At the same time, Pakistani authorities have blocked the Baloch people from expressing their collective grief over the deaths of their beloved leaders.” He urged the US and Canadian leaders to hold Pakistan military and intelligence accountable for its crimes against humanity in Balochistan.
