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Pakistani Teenager Killed In Texas School Shooting Buried In Karachi


Relatives, residents and government officials offer funeral prayers for slain Pakistani exchange student Sabika Sheikh, who was killed during a school shooting in Texas, following her body's arrival from the United States in Karachi on May 23.
Relatives, residents and government officials offer funeral prayers for slain Pakistani exchange student Sabika Sheikh, who was killed during a school shooting in Texas, following her body's arrival from the United States in Karachi on May 23.

Hundreds of people mourned on May 23 a Pakistani student killed in last week's Texas school shooting during her funeral in her hometown of Karachi.

Sabika Sheikh, 17, was among eight students and two teachers gunned down at a high school in Santa Fe on May 18 when a student opened fire on classmates.

Her body was flown back to Pakistan on May 23 and taken to a public meeting ground where the mourners gathered to pay their respects before the burial at a nearby cemetery.

"My daughter is a martyr and martyrs don't die," Sheikh's father Abdul Aziz said after the prayers.

Provincial Governor Mohammad Zubair, who also attended the funeral, told reporters, "The whole nation stands by the Pakistani girl who was martyred in a terrorist attack in the U.S.”

The gunman, identified as 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, is being held on murder charges and could face the death penalty.

Sabika Sheikh had been due to return to Pakistan in just a few weeks' time, ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr.

She had been studying in Texas for the last year as part of a U.S. government program.

With reporting by AFP and the BBC
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