Pakistani PM condemns murder of human rights activist

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has condemned the murder of prominent human rights activist Sabeen Mehmud.

A statement from Sharif's office expressed the leader’s condolences and ordered an immediate investigation into her murder.

Mehmud was shot four times at close range in Karachi as she was driving home, with bullets hitting her shoulder, chest and abdomen. Her mother, who was in the car with her, was also shot twice, but survived the attack., The incident occurred only hours after Mehmud had hosted a talk on the Pakistani army’s alleged involvement in the torture and killing of political activists in the Balochistan province.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the killing, yet the Karachi-South Deputy Inspector General of Police described it as an “incident of targeted killing.”

Mehumd controversial talk was originally due to be held earlier this month at a university in Lahore but was cancelled by the authorities.

Mehmud, 40, was the director of T2F [The Second Floor], a cafe and arts space that has been a mainstay of Karachi’s activists since it opened in 2007. It regularly holds seminars on human rights issues.

At Mehumd’s last discussion programme – prominent Baloch rights activists Mama Qadeer, Farzana Majeed and Muhammad Ali Talpur had spoken out. Qadeer and Majeed have long championed the cause of Balochistan's "disappeared," a term used in Pakistan to describe people who have been abducted in Balochistan, with their bodies often found years later.

The Voice of Baloch Missing Persons organisation, which both activists belong to, says that over 2,825 people have "disappeared" in this way since 2005.

They claim that the disappearances, which are mostly of Baloch rights activists and students, have been carried out by the Pakistani government and its powerful ISI intelligence agency, a charge the agency denies.