Pakistan: Human rights activist Sabeen Mahmud fatally shot in southern city of Karachi

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Senior police officer Zafar Iqbal says Sabeen Mehmud was attacked Friday night as she was returning home with her mother, who was wounded.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Associated Press / The Express Tribune
By Staff collection / various  reports | April 24, 2015

KARACHI, Pakistan –  Police say gunmen have killed a prominent Pakistani women's rights activist in the southern city of Karachi.

Sabeen Mahmud, the director and founder of The Second Floor (T2F) cafe which hosts activists, writers and intellectuals., was shot dead by gunmen in an upscale neighborhood of the metropolis.

Senior police officer Zafar Iqbal says Sabeen Mehmud was attacked Friday night as she was returning home with her mother, who was wounded.

Hours earlier, she had hosted a seminar on the troubled province of Balochistan, featuring Mama Qadeer, the chairperson of Voice for Missing Baloch. This was a similar session to the one that had been cancelled by the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) a few weeks ago.

In a statement, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned Mehmud's assassination and ordered an investigation.

Outside the mortuary, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNA Dr Arif Alvi told the media that Sabeen had been receiving threats for the past few days. “She was running a movement for the missing persons and had been receiving threats,” he said without elaborating. “It is tragic that a woman of Sabeen’s stature, who was speaking out for human rights and for an end to terrorism was killed so mercilessly.”

Police officer Arshad said that as the victim had been receiving threats, her cellphone records might also help in tracing the culprits.

No one has claimed responsibility, but the killing comes shortly after Mehmud organized a seminar about Baluchi nationalists who often disappear in the country's impoverished southwestern Baluchistan province.

Pakistani rights activists blame security agencies.


  -- Pakistani human rights activist fatally shot in southern city of Karachi


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