Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the killing of prominent women’s rights activist Sabeen Mahmud in the port city of Karachi and ordered an investigation into the attack.
Gunmen on a motorcycle killed Mahmud late Friday, just hours after she held a forum on restive, southeastern Baluchistan Province, police said. Baluchistan is known as the home of a long-running insurgency in Pakistan, VoA reported.
While the investigators have declined to give details on the possible motive for the killing of Mahmud, friends and colleagues described her death as a targeted assassination.
Mahmud had become a Pakistani figurehead for humanism, love and tolerance. She had received death threats in the past, according to reports.
The Pakistani activist, who ran Karachi’s Second Floor cafe, known locally as T2F, and her mother, Mehnaz Mahmud, were on their way home from the cafe when they were attacked.
She died on her way to the hospital. Doctors said they extracted five bullets from her body. Her mother, who was also shot, remains in critical condition.
Earlier in the day, Mahmud had hosted an event at the cafe about rights abuses in Baluchistan, featuring two prominent Baluch rights activists, Abdul Qadeer Baluch and Farzana Baluch, among other speakers.
