Photo: Facebook
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has expressed condolences to the family of Pakistan Exchange program student Sabika Sheikh, who was among the victims of deadly shooting in Santa Fe High School in Texas on Friday.
The chief American diplomat described the death of Sabika and other students in the tragic shooting as “heartbreaking.”
Sabika was in the United States under State Department-sponsored Youth Exchange and Study Program, “helping to build ties between the United States and her native Pakistan,” Pompeo said.
Here is the complete statement as released by the State Department:
“I send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Sabika Sheikh, who was killed in the tragic shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas, yesterday. Sabika was in the United States on the State Department-sponsored Youth Exchange and Study program, helping to build ties between the United States and her native Pakistan. Sabika’s death and that of the other victims is heartbreaking and will be mourned deeply both here in the United States, and in Pakistan.
The U.S. embassy in Islamabad also conveyed deepest condolences on the death of Sabica Sheikh.
This morning, I called the family of Sabika Sheikh and offered my deepest condolences. All of us at the U.S. Mission in Pakistan are devastated by and mourn her loss. We will honor her memory. #AmbHale #USEmbassyISB pic.twitter.com/Q8ZhF27gGz
— US Embassy Islamabad (@usembislamabad) May 19, 2018
Sabica hailed from Karachi and was the eldest of three sisters. She had completed her secondary education at Karachi Public School.
The 17-year-old had been in the United States under was studying in the US under the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program since August 21, 2017, and was planning to travel back on June 9 to join her family in Pakistan for celebration of Eid ul Fitr.
“It is still so very hard to believe that [Sabika is dead],” her father Abdul Aziz Sheikh said, according to the Pakistani media.
Law enforced respond to shooting in Santa Fe High School in Texas
May 18 2018
Photo: Screenshot/ABC
Ten people, mostly students, were killed when a 17-year-old classmate armed with a shotgun and a revolver opened fire in a Texas high school on Friday, in the latest deadly school shooting to hit the United States.
The gunman, who was arrested on murder charges, was identified as Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old junior at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani embassy in Washington D.C. said the country’s Consul General in Houston is also in touch with Sabika’s family in Pakistan, and authorities concerned in Houston to ensure timely completion of all formalities for early repatriation of dead body of the student.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Aizaz Amed Chaudhry has also expressed condolences on the death of the student.
