Slain social activist Sabeen Mahmud laid to rest amid calls for swift justice

Karachi
The funeral of slain social activist Sabeen Mahmud was held at the T2F on Saturday afternoon and was attended by hundreds of friends, colleagues and admirers.
Police said that Mahmud, with her mother Mehnaz, had been heading home after an event at the T2F when two men riding a motorcycle shot and killed her on Sunset Lane 5.
The body was first brought to the T2F, according to the wishes of Mahmud’s injured mother, where friends and family kept coming to pay their respects.
The funeral prayer was held at a mosque inside the premises of the DHA Phase 1 office and later Mahmud’s body was taken to a graveyard.
Wusutullah Khan, Mohammad Hanif, Nimra Bucha, Khushbakht Shujaat, Mir Ali Talpur, Adnan Malik and Ajmal Kamal were among the hundreds of prominent personalities who attended Mahmud’s funeral.

‘Catch the culprits’
The chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, demanded that whoever was involved in his heinous incident be ferreted out and brought to justice.
The Sindh chief minister’s coordinator on human rights, Nadia Gabol, while condemning Mahmud’s murder said her killing had created a vacuum in the fields of literature, academics and social activism.
While expressing her sympathies with the bereaved family, Gabol said the Sindh government would use all available resources for the investigating the murder and prosecuting the culprits.
She said Mahmud’s services to society were highly commendable and the trends she had set in the world of literature and academics would also be cherished by the generations to come.
She said Mahmud had, on several occasions, offered her assistance to the government and its agencies concerned for which the government authorities were highly indebted to her.
Meanwhile, the central coordinator of the PPP’s human rights cell, MNA Dr Nafeesa Shah, also condemned the attack said Mahmud’s death had saddened all the quarters concerned striving for a liberal, peaceful and egalitarian Pakistan.
She said Mahmud’s killing was tantamount to ending the struggle of all people striving for the causes of the oppressed, rights of smaller provinces, women’s rights and extremism.
Shah said Mahmud’s intellectual outlook was very progressive and this had reflected in her brainchild the T2F which became the centre of important discourse on political and social issues.
She called upon the Sindh government to arrest the culprits at the earliest and make the conspiracy open to the public.
Meanwhile, in a joint statement, PPP leaders including Senator Saeed Ghani, Najmi Alam, Habibuddin Junadi, Lateef Mughal, Zulfiqar Qaimkhani, and Manzoor Abbas also condemned Mahmud’s killing and said the terrorist attack was reminiscent of the killing of Parveen Rahman.
They said the anti-social elements who had plotted to kill Mahmud should not remain under any sort of delusion that all the voices being raised against terrorism would be silenced.
They warned the attackers to refrain from killing innocent people since the entire nation would stand up and wage a joint struggle against terrorism. They also called on the government to bring the culprits to justice and provide protection to human and social rights activists.
PPI adds: The Pakistan Medical Association monthly meeting of the executive committee also categorically condemned the murder while expressing concern over the detonating law and order situation in the city.
They said the murder of Mahmud was a case of targeting a liberal voice who was instrumental in arranging dialogue on a wide range of issues. It was resolved unanimously that a high-level judicial inquiry be conducted of the attack and ascertain the hidden hands behind this cold-blooded murder. It called for exemplary punishment to all the culprits involved in Mahmud’s murder.