Tributes to Pakistani student killed in Texas

VICTIM’S FATHER URGES GUN CONTROL LAW AFTER SCHOOL SHOOTING

THE father of a Pakistani girl killed in a Texas school shooting said on Monday (21) he hoped that the death of his daughter, who wanted to serve her country as a civil servant or dip­lomat, would help spur gun control in the US.

Santa Fe High School, southeast of Houston, last Friday (18) joined a grim list of US schools and campuses where students and staff have been gunned down, stoking a divisive US debate about gun laws.

Among the eight students and two teachers killed in Texas was 17-year-old Pakistani exchange student Sabika Sheikh.

“Sabika’s case should become an example to change the gun laws,” her father, Aziz Sheikh said, speaking by telephone from the family home in the city of Karachi.

Most Pakistani youngsters dream of studying abroad, with the United States the favourite destination for many.

Aziz Sheikh said the danger of a school shooting had not crossed his mind when he sent Sabika to study in the United States for a year. Now he wants her death to help spur change.

“It has become so common,” he said of school shootings.

“I want this to become a base on which the people over there can stand and pass a law to deal with this. I’ll do whatever I can,” he added.

Students said the teenage boy charged with fatally shooting 10 peo­ple, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, opened fire in an art class shortly before 8am last Friday (18).

Sabika was part of the YES exchange programme funded by the US State Department, which provides scholar­ships for students from countries with significant Muslim populations to spend an academic year in the US.

Sabika loved her time in Texas, Sheikh said.

“She appreciated it so much. She was so excited to be there and to study and meet the people, especially the teachers,” he said.

Her family spoke to her every day and she had been due to return to Pa­kistan on June 9, at the end of the school year.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo offered his condolences in a statement last Saturday (26), saying Sabika was “helping to build ties between the United States and her native Pakistan”.

Her father said Sabika had wanted to work in government in some capac­ity, to help her country.

“She would say she wanted to join the foreign office or the civil service,” he said. “The reason was that she said was there is a lot of talent in Pakistan but the image and perception of the country was really bad, and she want­ed to clear that up.”

The US ambassador to Pakistan, Da­vid Hale, visited the family in Karachi to offer condolences. (Reuters)