TEXAS: The funeral prayers for Sabika Sheikh, the young Pakistani exchange student killed in a mass shooting Friday at Santa Fe School, was held on Sunday after Namaz-e-Zuhr, here in a local mosque.
Hundreds of people made their way to Houston on Sunday to attend the somber ceremony took place at an Islamic center in the Texas town of Stafford.
Mayor of Houston, Pakistani diplomats, local members of the United States Congress, other US officials and a large number of students attended the funeral prayers scheduled by Pakistani Consulate.
Sabika’s family, friends, and other relatives will separately attend the teen’s funeral prayers in Karachi. While her body will reach in her hometown in the wee hours of Tuesday.
Ten people, eight students and two teachers, were killed Friday when a shooter identified by police as 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis opened fire with a shotgun and a handgun before surrendering to police.
Sabika Sheikh, described by her family as an excellent student, had dreamed of working for Pakistan´s Foreign Affairs Ministry.
She had been due to return to Karachi in coming weeks in time for Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
The Islamic Society, in its statement, called the shooting "an act of terror" and said such events "remind us as to what world we live in, where sanctity of life is not valued."