Sabika Sheikh
STAFFORD, TEX. — The funeral was about to begin, the first of 10 for the victims of the Santa Fe High School mass shooting, and the body of Sabika Sheikh was waiting at the mosque.
Sabika, 18, dreamed of being a diplomat, of working to empower women. A Muslim exchange student from Karachi, Pakistan, she had come to the United States through a State Department-funded study program, excited to leave behind the dangers posed by extremists at home to experience a country that represented all that was possible.
That’s what her host family remembered about her, that there seemed so little for her to fear here in Southeast Texas. And then a gunman opened fire at her school, in her classroom.
Now, Sabika was about to be on her way home, 20 days early. A Pakistani Embassy official had urged the medical examiner to work quickly so Sabika’s family could bury her properly, a world away.
A plane would leave with her body later this night. But first, the funeral.
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Abdul Aziz Sheikh sits on the ground floor of his Karachi home surrounded by mourning friends, relatives and local politicians that have come to give their condolences. Composed, he fights back tears. On the floor above, his wife is still in shock. The friends around her wail in grief.
Their daughter, Sabika Sheikh, an 18-year-old exchange student from Pakistan, was among those killed when Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, went on a shooting rampage at his high school in Santa Fe, Texas, killing 10 people and wounding at least 10 others.
Sheikh, a businessman in his mid-40s, said he can't believe what happened to his daughter. "We are still in a state of denial. We can't believe it. It's like a nightmare," he told The Associated Press. Sabika was the eldest of his four children.
Sheikh said she left Pakistan in August of last year and was expected to return home in a few weeks for Eid al-Fitr, a three-day holiday that marks the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.∼Sabika died in the Santa Fe High School shooting on May 18, 2018.
Sabika Sheikh
STAFFORD, TEX. — The funeral was about to begin, the first of 10 for the victims of the Santa Fe High School mass shooting, and the body of Sabika Sheikh was waiting at the mosque.
Sabika, 18, dreamed of being a diplomat, of working to empower women. A Muslim exchange student from Karachi, Pakistan, she had come to the United States through a State Department-funded study program, excited to leave behind the dangers posed by extremists at home to experience a country that represented all that was possible.
That’s what her host family remembered about her, that there seemed so little for her to fear here in Southeast Texas. And then a gunman opened fire at her school, in her classroom.
Now, Sabika was about to be on her way home, 20 days early. A Pakistani Embassy official had urged the medical examiner to work quickly so Sabika’s family could bury her properly, a world away.
A plane would leave with her body later this night. But first, the funeral.
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Abdul Aziz Sheikh sits on the ground floor of his Karachi home surrounded by mourning friends, relatives and local politicians that have come to give their condolences. Composed, he fights back tears. On the floor above, his wife is still in shock. The friends around her wail in grief.
Their daughter, Sabika Sheikh, an 18-year-old exchange student from Pakistan, was among those killed when Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, went on a shooting rampage at his high school in Santa Fe, Texas, killing 10 people and wounding at least 10 others.
Sheikh, a businessman in his mid-40s, said he can't believe what happened to his daughter. "We are still in a state of denial. We can't believe it. It's like a nightmare," he told The Associated Press. Sabika was the eldest of his four children.
Sheikh said she left Pakistan in August of last year and was expected to return home in a few weeks for Eid al-Fitr, a three-day holiday that marks the end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.∼Sabika died in the Santa Fe High School shooting on May 18, 2018.
