Karima Baloch: Activist's family mourns a 'mountain of courage'

Supporters of Baloch political activist Karima Baloch rallied in Quetta on Wednesday

Karima Baloch, a Pakistani human rights activist living in exile in Canada, was found dead on Sunday. Police say they have no reason to suspect foul play, but Karima's family and supporters say her death at least warrants closer inspection. The BBC spoke to her family about a woman they called "a mountain of courage".

In 2008, Karima Mehrab - known as Karima Baloch - was standing in front of a judge in a Pakistani court on charges connected to her activism. The judge told her he was minded to give her a more lenient sentence because she was a woman.

Karima declined.

"She said, 'If you are going to punish me, you should do that on the basis of equality - do not give me that concession because of my gender,'" her brother Sameer recalled. It was just another example of an "extraordinary" woman's dedication to her beliefs, he said.

Karima was used to clashing with the Pakistani authorities. She had been a thorn in their side ever since her early twenties, when she stood at the front of a rally for missing people in Balochistan clutching a picture of one of her missing relatives.

Back then, the authorities didn't know her name. But in the following years she rose up the ranks of activists fighting for independence for Balochistan - a resource-rich but restive province in the southwest. In 2006, Karima joined the central committee of the Baloch Student Organisation (BSO) - a group she would go on to lead.

Her family knew the dangers that came with such a role. When Karima was a child, her mother talked about the struggle, Sameer said, and they had uncles on both sides who were involved in the movement. They also knew what could happen. Pakistan's armed forces have been accused of suppressing the struggle through force, "disappearing" activists - a charge they've denied multiple times. In the coming years, a number of Karima's relatives would go missing and turn up dead.

"I was afraid something would happen to her," said Sameer, who left Pakistan in 2006 and joined his sister in Canada in 2017. "I could not forgive myself if something had happened. But that grew into pride because I saw what she did."

Karima Baloch was reported missing on Sunday

Karima continued to lead from the front, even after the BSO was banned in 2013, accused by the government of taking foreign funding to destabilise Pakistan.

"I would go with her to all protests and demonstrations so as to be around in case of any trouble," her younger sister Mahganj Baloch said. "I would run around like mad, looking for her whenever there was a teargas fire or a baton charge."

In 2015, two years after the BSO was banned, Karima was chosen as its leader - the first woman in its seven decades as an organisation to hold the role.

"She turned the movement into something not only for Balochistan, but she wanted equality for the women," Sameer said. "She knew we cannot change our society, that we could not achieve without first changing the patriarchy."

But Karima had taken on a truly dangerous role. The previous chairman was abducted; she watched as a colleague went on hunger strike to demand his release. Months after she became chair of the BSO, terrorism charges were filed against her. It was decided she should leave.

"I can't forget that one November evening in 2015, when I had just finished my evening prayers, she came, put her head in my lap, and said she was going to go far away," her mother Jamila Baloch recalled. "I said why? You never liked to go abroad. Why are you doing it now? She said it was a decision by her organisation."

"Some years ago she had been issued a visa by a western country but she had decided not to go. She said she couldn't imagine herself living away from Balochistan. But this time it took her just a few days to make preparations and leave.

"At the airport, I told her to go finish your education and come back soon. I fought back my tears, lest she will change her plans. Now I wish I had cried."

The news of Karima's death brought protesters to the streets in Balochistan

Karima began a new life in Toronto, Canada, but she continued her fight for human rights and against the "enforced disappearances and state operations" in her hometown, she said. The year after she resettled, she was named in the BBC's annual list of 100 inspirational and influential women.

"I knew that what happened to my colleagues back home could have happened to me as well," she told the BBC at the time. She wasn't fleeing her activism, she said, she was spreading it.

"I haven't sought asylum to protect my life. I am here to tell the world about the current situation in Balochistan. When we saw that the world is not coming towards us, isn't listening to us, we decided to go towards it. To tell them what is happening to us back home. I believe it is my responsibility."

But even so far away she could not escape threats from Pakistan. He uncle was abducted while she was in Canada, her sister Mahganj said, and the family was sent a message demanding that Karima stop her activism. But Karima refused. Her uncle's body was returned to the family the day Karima appeared before a judge in Canada to request asylum, Mahganj said.

"The judge even told her they could postpone, but she said 'No, I came here to tell my story,'" Sameer said.

Looking back now, Sameer wonders about the asylum case - why it took so long. Was Pakistan opposing it behind the scenes? There is no way to know. His head is full of questions.

They do know someone was watching them. Karima received a phone call one day, telling her to return to Pakistan. The person on the phone described in detail a trip she had made with Sameer's three-year-old son to the local park in Toronto. "It looks like you are enjoying your life," the person said.

"For a normal person, it is really terrifying. But I felt she was never afraid. She was fearless," Sameer said.

Lateef Johar Baloch, a close friend and fellow activist who also lives in Toronto, told the BBC that Karima had recently received anonymous threats warning someone would send her a "Christmas gift" and "teach her a lesson".

"I don't recall ever seeing her worried or afraid," her husband Hammal Baloch, a former member of the BSO, said. "I knew how in Balochistan her house had once been a target of a mortar attack, and how repeated raids were conducted there for her arrest while she continued her underground activities from the platform of BSO. Cases were filed against her."

None of it bothered her, he said. "She was a mountain of courage."

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The family are not sure what happened last Sunday. They know she left her home to go for a walk. When she didn't return, the family contacted police. Her body was found the next morning. According to police, her body was found near Lake Ontario, but no further details were given. Police said they did no believe there were any suspicious circumstances.

"The Toronto Police Service is aware of heightened community and media interest surrounding a missing person investigation," the force said in a statement. "The circumstances have been investigated and officers have determined this to be a non-criminal death and no foul play is suspected."

Karima's mother didn't cry when she heard the news, she said. "Karima was a strong person, and she wouldn't like it if I cried. When I heard the news, I felt like all the seven skies fell on me, but there are no tears.," Jamila Baloch said.

"The path she chose was her well-considered decision. She wasn't living for herself, but was fighting a battle for the Baloch youth who had gone missing."

Sameer is less sure there was nothing untoward in his sister's death, he said. Earlier this year, he watched as police in Sweden declared there did not appear to be any foul play involved in the death of his friend and fellow Baloch activist and exile Sajid Hussain, who went missing near the city of Uppsala on 2 March 2020 and was found in the Fyris River on 23 March. His death was ruled to have been from drowning.

"Police officers are trying to rush us into accepting [their conclusion that she took her own life]," Sameer said. "She has been depressed her whole life. Now, finally she had got her permanent residency. She was granted her refugee status, and things were going better.

"I do not know what happened that day, but given our history - given her history - I think we have the right to take this with a pinch of salt," he said.

Sameer had lost his childhood friend and "reference point", he said. The Baloch rights movement had lost a "better leader than any man".

Speaking to the BBC four years ago, after she was named on its 100 Women list of inspiring and influential figures, Karima said she had never really left her homeland.

"It is with me," she said. "The decision to go back to Balochistan any time I want is mine. I won't let Pakistan make that decision for me."

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