The news of Sabeen Mahmud’s murder in cold blood shocked me. I don’t think I have felt this sensation of helplessness in a very long time. We, Pakistanis have become desensitized to murder. We hear of bomb attacks, we hear of attacks on children, we hear of violence in Karachi and we hear of thousands missing in Balochistan daily- it doesn’t shock us or shake us.
Sabeen was a doer in a community full of online or social media activists, myself included. She had the gall to do things which most of us would only dream of doing. She gave a voice to the voiceless and that is something we as Pakistanis should never forget. We cannot let this die with Sabeen. We must do whatever we can to keep this issue abreast.
Despite having doubts and receiving threats, Sabeen valued to raise the voice of those who had not other platform, even though it cost her, her life. Sabeen Mahmud was a human rights activist to the core, with no political agendas or stakes of any sort, she was one of those pure, rare types who are perhaps present only once in every generation. She created a space for free dialogue which many utilized to voice their concerns and opinions. Her last event was ‘Unsilencing Balochistan’, where she invited Baloch rights activists Mama Qadeer with others to talk about the missing Baloch.
Sabeen paid with her life and we all bear the burden to do justice to her cause in any way we can.
