Group: Pakistani Baloch dissident buried amid high security

A Pakistani dissident and woman rights activist who died in exile in Cana last month was brought home and laid to rest in her home vill in southwestern Baluchistan province under tight security, activists said Monday. Only immediate family of 37-year-old Karima Baloch were allowed to attend her funeral on Sunday in vill of Tump in Baluchistan.

Her supporters claim that Pakistani troops h sealed off vill and prevented m from attending her burial. Her remains were brought to Pakistan from Cana earlier on Sunday. Baloch’s body was found on Dec. 22 near Toronto’s downtown waterfront, a place that she liked and often visited, a day after she was reported missing. Toronto police have t treated her death as suspicious though re were allegations by her supporters that she was killed.

A fierce critic of Pakistani spy ncies that are often accused of abducting activists in Baluchistan and elsewhere in Pakistan, she was granted asylum in Cana in 2016. Her death has raised suspicions among rights activists, who on Monday deunced authorities for holding funeral in near secrecy.

“It is appalling to see how Karima Baloch’s de body was treated," said Mohsin Dawar, a lawmaker from Pakistan's former tribal regions who campaigns for Pashtun mirity right but like Baloch, has also criticized Pakistani spy ncies.

“It is t difficult to understand how this will deepen divide and fuel separatism," he tweeted. "Is this strategy to deal with Baloch insurgency, to sprinkle salt on wounds of Baloch?"

re was immediate comment from government, but a video that surfaced on social media shows soldiers turning back several mourners who are heard in foot saying y wanted to pay ir last respects to Baloch. Angered over situation, a Baloch nationalist group — Baloch Solidarity Committee — issued a call for a daylong strike and complete shutdown in Baluchistan on Monday. Its statement said Pakistani troops spirited Baloch's coffin on its arrival from Cana and foiled a move by her supporters to hold her funeral in Karachi, inste taking her remains to her home vill.

Baluchistan has for years been scene of a low-level insurgency by small separatist groups and nationalists who complain of discrimination and demand a fairer share of ir province’s resources and wealth. Although re are also militant groups in Baluchistan that st attacks on soldiers, separatists also often attack troops in province, prompting authorities to detain suspects. Human rights activists often blame security forces of illegally holding people. Such detainees are usually t charged and do t appear in court, which draws protests from ir families and rights activists.