Sabeen Mahmud

Sabeen Mahmud (20 June 1974 – 24 April 2015) (Urdu: صبین محمود) was a progressive Pakistani human rights activist and social worker who founded the Karachi-based cafe The Second Floor.

[8] Mahmud wanted to challenge injustice and discrimination, and to encourage critical thinking; she told Dawn that her biggest dream is to "change the world for the better through the Internet.

In 2006, she founded The Second Floor (T2F), a cafe that hosted public forum discussions, film screenings, poetry writing, stand-up comedy, and live theatre.

[14] Mahmud hosted public figures, including Ayesha Siddiqa who authored a controversial book on military financing, leading to the Inter-Services Intelligence contacting The Second Floor.

[15] In 2013, she told Wired magazine that she didn't want an armed security guard in The Second Floor: "I said, that’s the price you pay for having a public space.

[21] The gunmen (later identified as Saad Aziz and Aliur Rehman) shot her four or five times with a 9mm gun, as her car waited at a traffic light less than 500 metres from T2F.

Her mother Mahenaz Mahmud was also critically wounded in the attack and taken to the Aga Khan Hospital for treatment by Nuzhat Kidvai.

[6] Nasreen Jalil, Mosharraf Zaidi, Altaf Hussain, Fasi Zaka, Raza Rumi, Hamid Mir, Arif Alvi, Fatima Bhutto, Taimur Rahman, Kamila Shamsie, Malala Yousafzai[22] and Sharmila Farooqi, among others, poured condemnations over the incident.