Pakistan bids farewell to teen killed in US shooting

Islamabad: Sabika Sheikh, a 17-year-old Pakistani exchange student who was killed in the US high school shooting last week, was laid to rest in Karachi on Wednesday.

Sheikh was buried next to the tomb of her grandparents at the Azimpura graveyard in Shah Faisal Colony. Around a thousand people, including family members and relatives, attended her funeral, the Pakistani media reported.

Sheikh’s coffin was wrapped in a Pakistani flag and was carried to the Hakeem Saeed park in her home city where a prayer ceremony was held, Dawn online reported.

Sindh province’s head Murad Ali Shah, Governor Mohamed Zubair and US Ambassador to Pakistan David Hule were present at the funeral.

Sheikh was among the nine students who were killed at a school shooting in Santa Fe in Houston in Texas on May 18.

The attack, in which a teacher was also killed and 10 others were injured, was carried out by a heavily-armed 17-year-old.

Sheikh, who was due to return to Pakistan in a few days when she was killed in the attack, had been in the US since August as part of a Youth Exchange and Study Programme, under which around 80 Pakistani students travel to the US every year.

The tragic incident, however, would not deter Sheikh’s father from sending his three other children to study in the US.

“If we get scared because of such incidents and stop our children from getting an education, it means we are promoting the agenda of those people who want children not to get an education by carrying out such acts,” Aziz Sheikh told reporters after the funeral.

Sheikh’s body had arrived early Wednesday at the Karachi airport, where it was received by acting US Consul-General in Karachi, John Warner.

—-IANS