Father of a renowned rights activist from Balochistan has been killed in Turbat.
According to the details, Hanif Chamrook, father of human rights activist Tayyaba Baloch, was killed by gunmen in Turbat, the capital of Balochistan’s Kech district.
The slain Hanif Chamrok, an artist by profession, who was shot dead, when he was sitting with his friends near Jahan Ghar in Sangani-sar. The pillion-riding masked assailants managed to flee after the attack.
Turbat Police has confirmed the incident and has said that Police are conducting further investigation in this regard.
Tayyaba Baloch has been campaigning for human rights in Balochistan for many years. She is affiliated with the Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB).
The motive behind the assassination of Hanif Chamrok has not been ascertained so far. However, political activists from the region claim that family members of rights activists are targeted to pressurise and silence activists.
Meanwhile, Nasir Baloch, the finance secretary of Baloch National Movement (BNM) in a tweet blamed the “death squads” behind the killing of Hanif Baloch and termed the incident as a collective Punishment.
The incident in Turbat unfolded only a day after parents of renowned activist and Pashtun rights advocate Gulalai Ismaeel were charged with terrorism related offences. Talking to AP Gulalai’s father Professor Mohammad Ismaeel said: “They just want to get our girl with these terrorist financing charges,”
Gulalai escaped to United States in 2019 after she and her family were targeted by “country’s powerful military for her investigations into human rights abuses by soldiers”.
Earlier in September this year, Shaheena Shaheen Baloch, a female journalist, artist and social activist was mysteriously killed by her husband Mehrab Gichki in Turbat city.