KARACHI: The director of The Second Floor (T2F), Sabeen Mahmud, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Karachi on Friday. Sabeen, accompanied by her mother, left T2F after 9pm on Friday evening and was on her way home when she was shot by unidentified gunmen in Defence Phase-II, sources confirmed. She died on her way to the hospital. Doctors said they retrieved five bullets from her body, which has now been shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. Her mother also sustained bullet wounds and is currently being treated at a hospital; she is said to be in critical condition. T2F had on Friday organised a talk on Balochistan: 'Unsilencing Balochistan Take 2: In Conversation with Mama Qadeer, Farzana Baloch & Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur.' Sabeen had left T2F after attending the session, when she was targeted. T2F, described as a community space for open dialogue, was Sabeen's brainchild. In an interview with Aurora, she referred to it as "an inclusive space where different kinds of people can be comfortable." Conceived as a bookstore and caf_ patterned after the old coffeehouse culture of Lahore and Karachi, The Second Floor - or T2F, as everyone calls it - says on its website that it was born out of a desire to enact transformational change in urban Pakistani society. Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Nasreen Jalil, while talking to DawnNews, condemned Sabeen Mahmud's killing and demanded the government to bring the perpetrators to justice. Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, taking notice of the incident, has asked the Additional Inspector-General Karachi Police to submit a report on the brutal murder, DawnNews reported. Condolences pour in. The reluctant non-conformist (Extracts from a profile published in Aurora Magazine) T2F Director Sabeen Mahmud never wanted to walk the off-beaten path; she simply walked, or actually ran full speed in the direction she wanted to. Never mind that everyone else seemed to be going in the opposite direction. She barely noticed. She was too busy running. A rebel's daughter who gave up a life of Tetris, Mac doodling and professional cricket (after three knee injuries) to start a NGO that promotes the arts, culture, science, technology, activism and advocacy... and she did it all just to make some new friends, and maybe start some interesting conversations. Six years and nearly 600 events later, T2F has to its credit national and international press coverage, countless donations and the kind of cult following typically reserved for rock bands. Mahmud doesn't see that though. "I didn't think this is a big deal, this is just a small little community space." But that word "community' still hits home. "When people say... we really feel at home here... that has been like balloons and ice-cream, I have been living on that for the past six years." UPDATE: 29 April 2015 Investigators clueless in Sabeen Mahmud murder case Investigators have found no match for casings of bullets that killed a prominent human rights activist, dashing hopes for quick answers to a murder that has raised fears for the safety of dissenting voices.Gunmen on a motorcycle attacked activist Sabeen Mahmud late last Friday in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi, as she was leaving her cafe, where she held art exhibitions and talks.She had just hosted a discussion on disappearances in Baluchistan, a resource-rich southwestern province where the Pakistani army is fighting a separatist insurgency, and, rights workers say, overseeing a campaign of killing opponents. The army denies rights abuses.Investigators recovered bullet casings from the scene but drew a blank."That suggests that a new group or new weapon has been used in the killing," a law enforcement official involved in the case, who declined to be identified because the topic is sensitive, said late on Monday.Police say their only witness is Mahmud's mother, who was with her and was wounded. Investigators suspect the killers had a back-up team of two men on a motorcycle and police are poring over CCTV footage. Investigators desperate for clues are monitoring social media in hopes that loose talk could provide a lead, said another senior law enforcement official.Authorities had earlier blocked the talk, titled "Unsilencing Baluchistan", when it was scheduled at a different venue.Mahmud had told friends that officials of the military's Inter-Services Intelligence agency visited her in 2013 to ask about her work and finances, the law enforcement official said.She had recently asked friends if she should go ahead with the Baluchistan talk, he added.The army condemned Mahmud's killing, saying its intelligence agents would help in the investigation.Human rights workers have not been reassured."There's a lot of fear among the people, about whoever speaks out about Baluchistan, what's going to happen," said Rukhsana Shama of the rights group Bedari."It's easy to point fingers at the agencies but no one knows."