Re: Another world record but sad , Mama Qadir’s Long March for Missing Baluchs
She deserves a seperate thread. Moving related posts now.
Re: Sabeen Mahmood murdered in Karachi
Details?
Re: Another world record but sad , Mama Qadir’s Long March for Missing Baluchs
Exactly my feeling. I didnt know her before today but now as I’m reading about her events and her vision, he was a real asset to Pakistan.
Newyork times was very quick to get the report out:
Gunmen Kill Arts Advocate in Pakistan After Human Rights Event
By SABA IMTIAZAPRIL 24, 2015
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KARACHI, Pakistan — Gunmen killed the director of a popular arts center in Pakistan’s largest city on Friday, shortly after she had hosted a contentious event on human rights abuses in western Baluchistan Province.
The gunmen opened fire on the center’s director, Sabeen Mahmud, as she drove through the upscale neighborhood of Defence with her mother shortly after the event.
Ms. Mahmud was shot four times in the face, neck and chest. She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, doctors said. Her mother was wounded in the attack and was treated at a private hospital early Saturday.
Ms. Mahmud, 39, was a well-known figure in Karachi’s arts and activist circles, and the center that she ran, The Second Floor, is a popular site for exhibitions and political discussions.
Earlier on Friday, she had hosted an event titled “Unsilencing Baluchistan” that examined military-led human rights abuses in the province, where a separatist insurgency has been raging for the past decade.
Ms. Mahmud agreed to host the discussion after it had been canceled at a private university in Lahore a few weeks earlier, reportedly at the behest of the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.
Hours after the discussion, friends of Ms. Mahmud’s gathered outside a city morgue, many weeping openly. Others were in a state of shock, having seen or spoken to her just hours earlier.
Speakers at both the canceled event and the one held at The Second Floor included Mama Qadeer Baloch, the head of a Baluch organization that campaigns for the release of people detained by the military intelligence agencies, and Farzana Majeed, a political activist.
**The Pakistani government recently prevented Mr. Baloch and Ms. Majeed from traveling to the United States by placing them on the Exit Control List, an official sanction used to bar criminal suspects or people involved in litigation from leaving the country.
**
Before her death, Ms. Mahmud told friends and journalists that she occasionally had come under scrutiny from Pakistani intelligence agents.
“I’ve made copies and told my staff to give them everything,” she had told a reporter earlier Friday. “I understand that they’re doing their job. I have nothing to hide.”
The death of such a popular and prominent figure led to an immediate outpouring of grief and anger in Karachi. Mohammed Hanif, a prominent author and journalist in Pakistan who has written extensively on Baluchistan, said he strongly suspected that the military had a hand in Ms. Mahmud’s death.
“There’s no other way to interpret this,” he said. “The Baluchistan problem is so huge, and Pakistani intelligence agencies are so paranoid, that they will not allow even discussion in a room full of people, let alone a TV channel or a newspaper.”
Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur, an activist who took part in the panel discussion, said, “It isn’t a random job, it’s a professional job.”
With her signature cropped hair and glasses, Ms. Mahmud was a fixture at many civil society events in Karachi. She participated in protests and supported political activists who sought to reduce the strength of Islamist extremists in Pakistani society.
One Valentine’s Day, she organized an online protest against anti-Valentine’s Day banners that had been raised in Karachi by Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative political party.
At The Second Floor, she hosted book readings and public discussions and last year helped host a creative festival.
She refused to hire security guards for her center, even after 40 were people robbed there by armed men in 2011.
Addressing the audience at the start of Friday’s event, Ms. Mahmud said that while Baluchistan was an emotional issue for many people, she asked for the discussion to be inclusive and dignified, for people to respect each other’s views and allow all kinds of perspectives to be heard.
Re: Sabeen Mahmood murdered in Karachi
Sorry i didnt see this thread, merging both now.
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
Why would anyone want to attack her ? What the hell did she ever do to anyone ?
Karachi is a mess.
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
Two reasons come to mind, the more I read about it:
- She was extremely liberal and a civil rights society member. Can be a target of terrorists
- She was working on baloch rights and activists like Mama Qadeer who are the direct targets of agencies these days. So you can easily guess..
Woman behind Pakistan’s first hackathon, Sabeen Mahmud, shot dead by unknown gunmen
By Xeni Jardin at 11:19 am Fri, Apr 24, 2015
[RIGHT]
Sabeen Mahmoud.
[/RIGHT]
The progressive activist and organizer who ran Pakistan’s first-ever hackathon and led a human rights and a peace-focused nonprofit known as The Second Floor (T2F) was shot dead today by unidentified gunmen in Karachi.
Sabeen Mahmud was leaving the T2F offices with her mother some time after 9pm on Friday evening, reports the Pakistani newspaper Dawn](Director T2F Sabeen Mahmud shot dead in Karachi - Pakistan - DAWN.COM). She was on her way home when she was shot, the paper reports.
This is the last photograph on her Instagram, a snapshot from a meetup about human rights tweeted just two hours ago, right before her murder.
From Dawn](Director T2F Sabeen Mahmud shot dead in Karachi - Pakistan - DAWN.COM):She died on her way to the hospital. Doctors said they retrieved five bullets from her body, which has now been shifted Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. Her mother also sustained bullet wounds and is currently being treated at a hospital; she is said to be in critical condition.
T2F had on Friday organised a talk on Balochistan: ‘Unsilencing Balochistan Take 2: In Conversation with Mama Qadeer, Farzana Baloch & Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur.’ Sabeen had left T2F after attending the session, when she was targeted.
T2F, described as a community space for open dialogue, was Sabeen’s brainchild. In an interview with Aurora, she referred to it as “an inclusive space where different kinds of people can be comfortable.”
Conceived as a bookstore and café patterned after the old coffeehouse culture of Lahore and Karachi, The Second Floor — or T2F, as everyone calls it — says on its website that it was born out of a desire to enact transformational change in urban Pakistani society.
The “about” page on T2F’s website:Coffeehouse tradition is all about sparking conversations and we are passionate about providing a platform for people to engage with each other. A community space for open dialogue, T2F features a café and bookshop and hosts poetry readings, meetups with writers, talks, debates, theatre performances, film screenings, open mic nights, jam sessions, and standup comedy.
T2F, formerly known as The Second Floor, because it was housed on the second floor of a nondescript office building, is PeaceNiche’s flagship initiative. A social entrepreneurship project that blends the best of business practice with the non-profit urge to make meaning, T2F is committed to social change through the liberal arts, creative expression, and open dialogue.
Since its inception in May 2007, T2F has hosted hundreds of events, ranging from poetry readings and film screenings, to vibrant debates on critical issues. With the support and participation of musicians, artists, writers, film makers, scientists, comedians, thought leaders, and engaged audiences, T2F has contributed to revitalizing Karachi’s cultural landscape and has provided an alternative, independent, safe space for discourse.
Sabeen’s Instagram bio described herself as a “Post Modern Flower Child, Unabashed Mac Snob, Pink Floyd Devotee, Tetris Addict, West Wing Fanatic, [who] Will Die for Hugh Laurie.”
Judging from the many snapshots she posted to social media, she loved her mom, her cat, '80s music, technology, and peace and justice. She was one of us.
Some of her Instagram images follow, below.
[HT: @oxbloodruffin]
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
Her last insta/FB post … couple of hours before getting shot
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
There are ‘rumours’ that the Facebook account of TCF has been taken down as well
Re: Sabeen Mahmood murdered in Karachi
The same panel was supposed to address in LUMS but somehow the debate got cancelled at the last minute.
LUMS
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
Im not surprised. Check this out.. this is #SabeenMahmood](https://twitter.com/hashtag/SabeenMahmood?src=hash) 's reply to a friend as he asked abt security of the event. She replied herself via page.
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
I agree with @Med911 Karachi is indeed a mess, if the security agencies are not behind this killing they should unmask the killers ASAP to silence their critics.
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
The establishment could be behind this but after the Lums hullabaloo I don’t think they’d have been stupid enough to kill an organiser of balochistan missing person debate. Some other elements could be behind this as well to use Pakistans weak point (balochistan) to create pressure on Pakistani state and intelligence. If the attack has been done by the latter the onus is on the state to unmask the killers. We need to keep in mind that PCEC can be scuttled only through an unstable balochistan.
We can take it both ways that the establishment is trying to silence the critics or some one else has jumped in the fray to make use of the confusion prevailing the issue. At the end it’s the Pakistani state which needs to pacify to the issue, if they try the avenue of dialog I think it would be better for us. Prolonging the uncertainty will not help Pakistan.
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
Must read… “Lay ab goli kha” .
Wussat Ullah khan was one of the journalists who were invited to the debate. Three journalists were invited, one backed out a few days before the event and the other a few hours before (due to personal commitments). This was in fact take 2 of the debate which was cancelled by Lums. Now will any one dare talk about balochistan?
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
RIP Sabeen.
We should really shut up about Kashmir and concentrate on internal security. This is TOOOOOOOO much now. 
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
Pakistan.. A country where lakhvis and hafiz saeed gets protection, mumtaz qadri becomes a hero and the intellects are shot dead..
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
Very sad. RIP.
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
**How can be she left alive after this truth
**
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/3343101553/c1a78ae2436defca2a84416971149f50_bigger.jpeg
Sabeen Mahmud[COLOR=#B1BBC3]@sabeen](https://twitter.com/sabeen)
Ye jo dehshatgardee hae uss ke peechay vardee hae peshawar](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Peshawar?src=hash) #InSolidarity](https://twitter.com/hashtag/InSolidarity?src=hash) #NoFear](https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoFear?src=hash) #NeverForget](https://twitter.com/hashtag/NeverForget?src=hash) http://instagram.com/p/w6ML4LnF4B/
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
Read the above all with this
[RIGHT]اسٹیبلشمنٹ کی طرف سے MQM کو نشانہ بنانا علامتی ہے، یہ آسان ٹارگٹ ہےمقصد تمام سیاسی عمل پر پریشر ڈالنا ہے۔ حارث گردز[/RIGHT]http://www.bbc.com/urdu/pakistan
Re: Prominent human rights activist and intellect Sabeen Mahmud shot dead
Whoever killed her, has achieved his goal.
They decided to kill her after a seminar on Balochistan so the blame instantly falls on the state and agencies! And some people have already starting badmouthing agencies without a having a clue. Yes they are so stupid and that they would make this so darn obvious that they had killed her. Goodness…
Not saying she was best friends with agencies, but really, if they wanted to take her down, they could’ve done it a slightly different way.
Re: Another world record but sad , Mama Qadir’s Long March for Missing Baluchs
Very well said, those who point finger without any proof or evidence is purely because of blind hatred.