Justice demanded at vigil for Sabeen

LONDON: British Pakistanis gathered outside Pakistan High Commission here for a vigil for Sabeen Mahmud, the slain human rights activist and director of T2F, an NGO working to promote space for art, culture and debate in Karachi and elsewhere in Pakistan.
Those who attended the vigil carried banners and posters paying tribute to the life and struggle of Sabeen Mahmud, who was gunned down in Karachi by unknown men. Those who assembled to light candles in her memory included professionals from different walks of life, children and a sizeable number of Pakistani civil society activists residing in London who were close friends with Sabeen and hosted her in London and had arranged a series of talks by her in a month’s time here.
Attendees paid tribute to her incredible bravery, activism and her relentless drive to provide Karachi with a safe, open space for dialogue, art and culture.The mourners said that Sabeen was a beloved friend to many and she deeply cared for all those who were powerless and under privileged.
Attendees brought posters and placards to remember Sabeen and lit candles in her memory. Speakers and attendees alike vowed to continue her legacy by raising their voice for justice and for dialogue and by continuing to support the work of T2F in promoting the arts.
They also demanded immediate action by the authorities to find those responsible for her murder as they chanted ‘Zaalimo Jawab Do, Khoon Ka Hisab Do’.
Speakers said that Sabeen Mahmud posed no threat to anyone and worked tirelessly to make Pakistan a better democratic place. They said that Sabeen believed in the power of arguments and spoke against extremism of all kind. She stood for those who had no one else to stand for them, they said.
The speakers said that the murder of Sabeen had sent shockwaves through Pakistan’s embattled intelligentsia both because she was much loved very much and also because her killing showed that intellectuals and critical journalists were under serious threat but the government didn’t seem to do anything about curtailing rising level of violence.
Pakistan Army spokesman General Asim Bajwa had decried the killing of Mahmud as “tragic and unfortunate”. He said that the intelligence agencies had been “tasked to render all possible assistance to investigating agencies for apprehension of perpetrators and bringing them to justice”. TTP has denied that it was behind the killing of Sabeen. Civil society groups have called on the government of Pakistan to form a judicial commission to find the killers of Sabeen and also get to the bottom of the case and bring those responsible for her tragic killing to justice.
Rights activists in London criticised the government for failing to take effective action militant violet groups.