LALARUKH, a former Dawn hand and human rights crusader, died in Los Angeles on Tuesday after a long illness, according to family sources. She was 55.

Educated at St Joseph’s Convent and later at the University of Karachi, where she did her master’s, Lalarukh entered the field of journalism with Pakistan Medical Association’s magazine Medical Gazette and later worked for Pakistan and Gulf Economist. In 1972, she joined newly launched The Sun and later moved to the Jang group, where she worked for Daily News and later became editor of its weekly magazine, MAG. In 1981, she joined Dawn, quit in 1983, edited She magazine and worked for the APP news agency. For a while she taught at the KU’s journalism department.

As a journalist activist she was arrested in 1978 for taking part in the newsmen’s countrywide protest against the closure of Masawat during the military dictatorship. In the nineties, she developed an interest in Dianetics and Church of Scientology. This took her to Los Angeles, where she had been residing since 1997.