ISLAMABAD: The father of a Pakistani girl killed in a Texas school shooting said on Monday 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 United States.
Santa Fe High School, southeast of Houston, on Friday 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 told Reuters, speaking by telephone from the family home in the city of Karachi.
Most Pakistani youngsters dream of studying abroad, with the United States the favorite 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 said.
Students said the teenaged boy charged with fatally shooting 10 people, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, opened fire in an art class shortly before 8 a.m. on Friday.
Sabika was part of the YES exchange program funded by the US State Department, which provides scholarships for students from countries with significant Muslim populations to spend an academic year in the United States.
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 on Saturday, 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,” her father 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, the US embassy said in a statement.
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Father of Pakistani girl killed in Texas hopes her death can spur reform
Father of Pakistani girl killed in Texas hopes her death can spur reform
- “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,” says Sabika Sheikh’s father
- US secretary of state Mike Pompeo offered his condolences in a statement, saying Sabika was “helping to build ties between the United States and her native Pakistan”
Japanese court set to sentence man who admitted killing former leader Abe
- Shinzo Abe was serving as a regular lawmaker after leaving the prime minister’s job when he was killed in 2022
TOKYO: A Japanese court on Wednesday will sentence a man who’s admitted assassinating former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a case that revealed decades of cozy ties between Japan’s governing party and a controversial South Korean church.
Abe, one of Japan’s most influential politicians, was serving as a regular lawmaker after leaving the prime minister’s job when he was killed in 2022 while campaigning in the western city of Nara. It shocked a nation with strict gun control.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, pleaded guilty to murder in the trial that started in October, and Wednesday’s ruling will determine how long he’ll spend in prison.
Shooter said he was motivated by hatred of a controversial church
Yamagami said he killed Abe after seeing a video message the former leader sent to a group affiliated with the Unification Church. He added that his goal was to hurt the church, which he hated, and expose its ties with Abe.
Prosecutors have demanded life imprisonment for Yamagami, while his lawyers have sought a sentence of no more than 20 years, speaking of his troubles as the child of a church adherent.
The revelation of close ties between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the church caused the party to pull back from the church. It also prompted investigations that ended with the church’s Japanese branch being stripped of its tax-exempt religious status and ordered dissolved.
The killing has also led to officials working to increase police protection of dignitaries.
Shooting at a crowded election campaign venue
Abe was shot on July 8, 2022, while giving a speech outside a train station in Nara. In footage captured by television cameras, two gunshots ring out as the politician raises his fist. He collapses holding his chest, his shirt smeared with blood. Officials say Abe died almost instantly.
Yamagami was captured on the spot. He said he initially planned to kill the leader of the Unification Church, but switched targets to Abe because of the difficulty of getting close to the leader.
Yamagami won sympathy from people skeptical of church
Yamagami’s case has also brought attention to the children of Unification Church adherents in Japan, and influenced a law meant to restrict malicious donation solicitations by religious and other groups.
Thousands of people have signed a petition requesting leniency for Yamagami, and others have sent care packages to his relatives and the detention center where he’s being housed.
Abe, one of Japan’s most influential politicians, was serving as a regular lawmaker after leaving the prime minister’s job when he was killed in 2022 while campaigning in the western city of Nara. It shocked a nation with strict gun control.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, pleaded guilty to murder in the trial that started in October, and Wednesday’s ruling will determine how long he’ll spend in prison.
Shooter said he was motivated by hatred of a controversial church
Yamagami said he killed Abe after seeing a video message the former leader sent to a group affiliated with the Unification Church. He added that his goal was to hurt the church, which he hated, and expose its ties with Abe.
Prosecutors have demanded life imprisonment for Yamagami, while his lawyers have sought a sentence of no more than 20 years, speaking of his troubles as the child of a church adherent.
The revelation of close ties between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the church caused the party to pull back from the church. It also prompted investigations that ended with the church’s Japanese branch being stripped of its tax-exempt religious status and ordered dissolved.
The killing has also led to officials working to increase police protection of dignitaries.
Shooting at a crowded election campaign venue
Abe was shot on July 8, 2022, while giving a speech outside a train station in Nara. In footage captured by television cameras, two gunshots ring out as the politician raises his fist. He collapses holding his chest, his shirt smeared with blood. Officials say Abe died almost instantly.
Yamagami was captured on the spot. He said he initially planned to kill the leader of the Unification Church, but switched targets to Abe because of the difficulty of getting close to the leader.
Yamagami won sympathy from people skeptical of church
Yamagami’s case has also brought attention to the children of Unification Church adherents in Japan, and influenced a law meant to restrict malicious donation solicitations by religious and other groups.
Thousands of people have signed a petition requesting leniency for Yamagami, and others have sent care packages to his relatives and the detention center where he’s being housed.
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