Baloch activist who died in exile in Canada buried in Pakistan amid high security

Pakistani activist Karima Baloch posted this photo on October 8, 2020 on her twitter account. (Photo Courtesy: Karima Baloch's Twitter)

• Karima Baloch’s body was found on December 22 near Toronto’s downtown waterfront a day after she was reported missing
• Toronto police have not treated her death as suspicious, her supporters say she was killed but have provided no evidence for their claims

QUETTA: A Pakistani dissident and woman rights activist who died in exile in Canada last month was brought home and laid to rest in her home village in the southwestern Balochistan province under tight security, activists said Monday.
Only the immediate family of 37-year-old Karima Baloch were allowed to attend her funeral on Sunday in the village of Tump in Balochistan.
Her supporters claim troops had sealed off the village and prevented them from attending her burial. Her remains were brought to Pakistan from Canada earlier on Sunday. 
There was no immediate comment from the government, but a video that surfaced on social media shows soldiers turning back several mourners who are heard in the footage saying they wanted to pay their last respects to Baloch.
Her body was found on December 22 near Toronto’s downtown waterfront, a place that she liked and often visited, a day after she was reported missing. Toronto police have not treated her death as suspicious though there were allegations by her supporters that she was killed. They have offered no evidence to support their claims. 
A fierce critic of Pakistani security agencies, Baloch was granted asylum in Canada in 2016. Her death has raised suspicions among rights activists, who on Monday denounced authorities for holding the funeral in near secrecy.
“It is not difficult to understand how this will deepen the divide and fuel separatism,” Mohsin Dawar, a lawmaker from Pakistan’s former tribal regions who campaigns for Pashtun minority rights, tweeted.
Angered over the situation, a Baloch nationalist group — the Baloch Solidarity Committee — issued a call for a daylong strike and complete shutdown in Baluchistan on Monday. On Sunday, hundreds of Baluch activists rallied in Karachi, demanding justice for Baloch, who they say was a “voice of the Baloch people” that was “silenced.” The activists insisted she did not die a natural death though they offered no evidence to support their allegation.
Balochistan has for years been the scene of a low-level insurgency by small separatist groups and nationalists who complain of discrimination and demand a fairer share of their province’s resources and wealth. The Pakistani state denies these allegations.