Sabika Shaikh laid to rest at Karachi's Azimpura graveyard

KARACHI: The funeral prayers of Sabika Sheikh were offered at Hakeem Saeed Ground here on Wednesday morning and she was laid to rest at the Azimpura graveyard in Shah Faisal Colony.

Seventeen-year-old Pakistani exchange student, Sabika Shaikh was killed in a Texas school shooting last week.

A number of government officials and political leaders, including Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Governor Muhammad Zubair, Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal, Pak Sarzameen Party chief Mustafa Kamal, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Halim Adil Sheikh, MQM leader Amir Khan, local Jamat Islami leaders and others attended funeral prayers amid tight security at Hakeem Saeed Ground.

Sabika Shaikh, a Karachi teenager, was studying at Santa Fe High School in Texas on a US State Department scholarship under the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) programme.

She was among 10 students gunned down inside the school by another student in May 18 shooting incident.

According to her relatives, Sabika was due to return home on June 9.

Her mortal remains arrived from the United States in the wee hours of Wednesday morning after the foreign airlines’ flight carrying her coffin was delayed due to bad weather. Her body was earlier scheduled to arrive yesterday at 9:00 am.

Sabika’s father, Aziz Sheikh, received her body at the airport. US Consul General John Warner, and PSP, PTI, PPP, and MQM leaders were also present at the airport along with her family members.

ASF personnel at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport presented a guard of honour to the mortal remains of the teenager.

Her body was carried from the airport to her home, where the family members and others receive it with tearful eyes and to pay their final respects.