There was a palpable energy in the room. Guests from different walks of life – leftists, nationalists, students, idealists, pragmatists, ‘traitors’ and ‘patriots’ alike – had all gathered at The Second Floor (T2F) to hear one man speak. Abdul Qadeer Baloch, better known as Mama Qadeer, was in Karachi to give a talk on the injustices carried out by the state in Balochistan. His discussion at the Lahore University of Management Sciences scheduled for April 8, 2015 had been cancelled earlier, purportedly under government pressure. Titled “Unsilencing Balochistan”, the talk was then shifted to the small café in Karachi. Other panelists included activist Farzana Baloch and columnists Wusatullah Khan and Mohammad Ali Talpur, who was part of Qadeer’s 2,300-kilometre Long March from Quetta to Islamabad.
The audience applauded. They raised questions. They argued. The session ended; the conversation did not.
The woman responsible for bringing them all together on one platform was T2F’s founder Sabeen Mahmud; ever-present and alert, making sure everything ran smoothly and passing the microphone around — at ease with friends and strangers alike.
As the event concluded after 9 pm, Mahmud left for home along with her mother. Minutes later, the staff at T2F began shutting off the lights and asking guests to leave as they had to close early. The unthinkable had happened.
“Sabeen has been shot.”
She was pronounced dead by the time she reached the hospital. Four bullet wounds punctured her body. Her mother was wounded.
“I just don’t know what the blowback entails. Wish you were here,” were Mahmud’s last words in a private conversation to a friend on Facebook.
This obituary was published in the Herald’s May 2015 issue. Read more here.