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It has been ten years since Sabine Mahmud was killed.
After being brutally killed on a hot night in 2015, near his workplace in Karachi, his friends, colleagues and those who visited T2F were included in the session of participants and audiences. After strong protests on roads and social media spaces, his voice was made to die at any time. This resulted in the arrest of the so -called culprit, which was eventually tried and a sentence was announced. Over time, his colleagues and his community that created him – included those of us who were neither companions nor friends, not only T2F’s “beneficiaries”, dispersed. T2F faced a separate war for self -sustainability. However, permanent efforts to revive the place have always been fulfilled with the enthusiasm of the community.
Sabine founded and operated the T2F, through the Persianiche, a described agenda for promotion, “to eliminate intellectual poverty.” The T2F did this through indiscriminate offerings – all sections and classes of society – through its place of dialogue and creative expression as a platform.
The T2F was not the first or last community in Karachi. However, the thing that separated him from others was that he had no gate keeper to discourage access. It was not colored by any political or ethnic commitment. There was no fee for those who participated in sessions and had no compulsion to donate or buy items from the associated bookstore and cafe. It was a flexible construction place for public meetings, art exhibitions and workshops. Chat with a quiet workplace, a friend; Showing a movie. In a safe and respected environment, discussing jamming sessions or political and urban issues. In the case of service, the T2F team under Sabine was provided with highly professional skills. All activities in the T2F were well planned and executed. Taste, aesthetics, hygiene and security were taken care of. The place was welcome to corporate professionals and well -known artists as Fisher was for the People’s Movement and Trade Union workers. The organization’s message was clear. It will provide any kind of dialogue and expression within the limits of respect and tolerance.
Sabine is not the first person in the city to be killed for reasons for his work. Countless political activists, civil society workers, rights guards and others have been attacked and they have lost their lives because they are considered a threat to the forces that use violence. That a person who is accused of killing is rotting in jail may be a relief for some people, but this is the place where it ends. Regardless of what part of his work led to his murder, the fact is that Sabine’s death was closely linked to what was trying to do for the city.
Through the social business, Sabine was enabled a fracture to be ethnic, religious and political affiliation. Do not refrain from expressing love through a stupid Sherry; To appreciate music; Finding sarcasm in everyday destruction; Sharing without fear; Sorry for a mistake and move on. Including the movements for expression and solidarity, without lifting the luggage of the association; To fix reasonable limits; Get a strong sense of right and wrong, yet do not stop communicating even after unpleasant exchange. Trying to understand the point of view of others and stop the decision for a while.
I was a witness in a exchange – as part of the collective to resist the nuclear power plants of the citizens, which was being planned near the French coastal area of Karachi in 2014 – I saw how it had made its commitment to dialogue. There was a member of the MQM among us, who was suddenly surrounded by a group of angry group members, while he was trying to speak. He interrupted a humble but strong tone in a high conversation: “Let him at least speak,” he said and the temperature in the room began to come down.
Violent process extinguished a living, breathing person in four seconds, and brutally jerked all the people associated with it closely or far. His death has deeply changed the sense of safety, which is important to trust and engage with fellow citizens.
Another observation about Sabine was how she didn’t want to be bracket. In the early days, after his assassination, people described them as a human rights activist, a guardian of art and culture and protector of rights … such statements were found with frustration to those who were close to him. He believed that he never used these titles as his introduction. But then how did he see himself?
As part of a team that is working to secure her life, I found a Facebook post that could find a glimpse of what she described as she did:
“I do not owe any explanation to anyone. However, in the interest of my seriousness and avoiding responding to the Bankal comments, I say that I am an experience. I am an experience. People and ideas, I am not associated with it, nor do I support a particular party and jump their results, I suggest that you read about the dangers of ‘moral certificate’.
Although he spent eight years trying to help Karachi re -invent his personal actions and business plans, it would be fair to see what Karachi had done for him on his tenth anniversary. And how the city has in fact provided its legacy on the slogan “His legacy will survive …” in a decade.
After Sabin, Karachi is heavy commercialized, corporateized and digitized. The new pound of the city’s stability and security has presented a vibrant art and culture that spreads every year. At the place of social movements, the city has hosted several successful steps such as March, a constant struggle against march, climate march, Karachi rescue and demolition of housing. On the political landscape, MQM is no longer the powerful force she used. Actors like PPP and PTI are pushing their place, while most religious parties have lost their steam from Karachi’s commercial.
Whenever there was a chance after Sabin, Karachi has done a small job to increase its identity by trying to respond to the T2F efforts. Then by the name of a road and religiously marked the birth anniversary of its birth and death through music, art and collective activities. After Sabin, Karachi can also claim that it has put so much pressure on the authorities to try to stop their killer and make sure that it is not punished.
However, I think “its inheritance will continue …” and “we cannot be silenced”, despite slogans like slogans, Karachi has changed forever. In fact, these slogans shine at the loss of the last week of April ten years ago. In its habit of returning to normal after every violent incident, the city has made no attempt to acknowledge the loss. Violent process extinguished a living, breathing person in four seconds and brutally shocked all the people associated with it closely or far. His death has deeply changed the sense of safety, which is important to trust and engage with fellow citizens. His death made the city realize the importance of being practical rather than emotional. This practicality is reflected in silence that appears on the occasion of organizing the political process. This is reflected in the process of neglecting and changing the issues that are bubbling, which is noted and mobilized around it. Although there are T2F, and other community spaces, they are merely constructed places that are unable to increase generosity to allow open and secure dialogue on controversial articles.
It is necessary to admit that the spirits have been crushed with the death of Sabine. That an organization has been orphaned. That a mother has been denied the right to be buried in front of her only child. That his murder was an extension of a decades -long gun culture that remains unaccounted for. And that justice has not been presented in absolutely because the murder of Sabine was not the last target of a Karachi citizen.
Author is an independent researcher based in Karachi
