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Pakistan activist Sabeen

Mahmud shot dead in Karachi

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Sabeen Mahmud, one of Pakistan's most outspoken human rights

campaigners, has been killed by armed men after giving a talk in

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Karachi, writes Saira Jaffer.

S AT U R D AY 25 APRIL 2015

Sabeen Mahmud, a prominent Pakistani human rights activist was shot

dead by gunmen on Friday in the southern city of Karachi, shortly after
hosting an event on one of Pakistan's most controversial subjects.
Police said armed men on a motorcycle targeted Mahmud as she left her
non-profit community caf,The Second Floor (T2F) with her mother.
The people of Pakistan are going through severe disasters and
traumas every daySabeen Mahmud

Mahmud received four bullets at close range and was pronounced dead
when she reached the hospital.

Mahmud was one of Pakistan's most outspoken human rights advocates,

and never let fear get in the way of her convictions.

Follow
Kenneth Roth

@KenRoth
She's shot dead after organizing & attending discussion of Pakistan's Balochistan:
@Sabeen. htrib.al/rUsYvkx
t Apr 2015
2:23 PM - 24
t
She had startedpT2F in 2007 as a community space for dialogue. The caf' soon became
a conversational: haven in the country's most violent city.
/
/

"Things are dangerous and bad things happen, but you can't let fear control you," she
once said.

"You'll never get anything done. Fear is just a line in your head - you can choose what
side of that line to be on."
I see a light, beckoning at the end of the tunnelSabeen Mahmud
On the evening of her death, Mahmud had just hosted a talk on forced

disappearances in Pakistan's Balochistan province, where security forces

have been fighting separatists since 2005.

The "Unsilencing Balochistan" event was on those political activists who

had "disappeared", only for their bodies to be retrieved bearing signs of
torture.

Prominent Baloch activists, who were part of the panel for Friday's talk, said
that more than 2,825 people had "disappeared" since 2005.

Follow
Ahmen Khawaja @AhmenKhawaja
One of #SabeenMahmud last msgs: "So what if my pen has been snatched, dip my
fingers in the blood of my heart"
7:07 AM - 25 Apr 2015 Paddington, London, United Kingdom

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Follow
Asad Hashim @AsadHashim
Hundreds gathered at T2F, awaiting Sabeen Mahmud's arrival, one last time.
6:19 AM - 25 Apr 2015

The event was initially supposed to be held on 21 April at a different location, but the
venue was later changed after the organisers started receiving threats.

Mahmud eschewed the armed security popular in Karachi's commercial shops,

restaurants and cafs as she wanted to keep the space accessible for all in an
increasingly exclusive and divided city.

Popular with students and the artistic community, T2F represented a space for
creativity and free speech and was part of PeaceNiche, a platform she founded for
"intellectual and cultural engagement".

The space hosted talks, concerts, exhibitions, screenings and experimental theatre one of the few alternative spaces in a city of 20m people.
Internet freedoms
An independent female entrepreneur, and a self-taught graphic designer and
coder, Mahmud was very active in the technology sector and was a fierce and

vocal champion of Internet freedoms in a country where YouTube has been

banned since 2012.

For her efforts, she was invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos in
January.

She played cricket competitively, protested on the streets for various

human rights causes and entered the tech world as a 17-year-old.

Despite the uncertainties and violence around her, Mahmud had been a
force of positivity and inspired others to remain hopeful.

She said: "The people of Pakistan are going through severe disasters and
traumas every day... I see a light, beckoning at the end of the tunnel that
Pakistan has entered right now."
T2F @thesecondfloor
On 2the tragic demise of our beloved Sabeen, please note that all upcoming events at
4
@thesecondfloor
have been cancelled till further notice.
2:37 AM - 25 Apr 2015
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Kashif
N Chaudhry @KashifMD
a
v best way to avenge the murder of #SabeenMahmud is to take up her cause & speak for
The
allooppressed & voiceless. Will you? #RIPSabeen
r
3:55 PM - 24 Apr 2015
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Mahmud
was one of a handful of vocal protesters against Taliban apologists following
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theaPeshawar school attack by Taliban fighters, in which at least 130 school children
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were
killed.
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Shet had protested in the capital Islamabad against Abdul Aziz, the chief cleric of the
e
s
capital's
Red Mosque after he had attempted to justify the killings.

Together with other activists, Mahmud had managed to turn the cleric's response into
a national issue, which ultimately culminated in the registration of a police report
against the controversial cleric.
Activist killings
Mahmud's death will come as a severe blow to Pakistan's fast-shrinking civil
rights community.

It is unclear who is behind Mahmud's killing, but her death follows attacks
on other prominent civil rights leaders.

Prominent journalist and civil rights activist Raza Rumi survived an

assassination attempt in January 2014 and had to leave the country for
speaking out against the violent Sunni-Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group.

Journalist Hamid Mir also survived a gun attack last year after his vocal
coverage of the military operation in Balochistan and the disappearance of
Baloch activists, allegedly involving the country's intelligence services.

Balochistan was the topic of debate on the evening of Mahmud's death. Her
friends say she had received threats to defer the event, but that she had
persisted.

Mahmud's death will be felt across Pakistan and especially in her city,
Karachi, where she had created a space that supported a culture of
tolerance, social awareness and change.
Posted by Thavam