Shari Baloch, the suicide bomber who killed three Chinese nationals at the University of Karachi on Tuesday, was a primary school teacher and an academician, news agency quoted Pakistani media reports.
A mother of two young children, the 30-year-old had posted a goodbye message on her Twitter account ten hours before she carried out the attack. The explosion triggered by the Baloch woman ripped through a van of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi, leaving three Chinese teachers dead and one injured and causing several Pakistani casualties.
A native of Kech district in Balochistan, Shari was a primary school teacher. Having completed her B.Ed in 2014 and M.Ed in 2018, she completed her masters in zoology from the University of Balochistan and an MPhil from the llama Iqbal Open University.
Her father served as a director in a government agency and was also a member of the district council for three years. Baloch’s husband is a dentist while her brother-in-law a lecturer. One of her uncles is an author, a former professor and human rights campaigner, news agency reported.
“Shaari joined Majeed Brigade two years ago and voluntarily signed up for self-sacrificing mission. Following Brigade’s established procedures, she was given time to revisit her decision. During these two years, Shaari rendered her services in different units of Majeed Brigade,” the Balochistan Liberation Army had said in a statement.
According to reports, Shari Baloch remained a member of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO-Azad) in her student life. Importantly, none of her family members is missing or subjected to enforced disappearance except a fifth cousin who got killed during a military operation in 2018 in Kech.
The BLA opposes Chinese investment in Pakistan, especially in the restive Balochistan, saying local people do not benefit. Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, is home to a long-running violent insurgency.
Baloch insurgent groups have previously carried out several attacks targeting the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.