… As Pakistani girl, killed in Texas school shooting is buried in Karachi***
A 35-year-old farmer was trampled to death by an elephant in Southern Tanzania’s District of Tunduru, local leaders said on Wednesday.
The deceased has been identified as Zuberi Maocha of Mishaje village in Tunduru District, Ruvuma Region, about 1,205 km from Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
Wema Waziri, Mishaje village chairperson, said that the farmer was trying to ward off the elephants, which stormed his maize farm in the area close to Selous Game Reserve, one of the largest faunal reserves of the world, located in the south of Tanzania.
According to the village leader, the incident occurred on Tuesday at around 1 p.m. local time.
“One of the elephants, which had a calf, charged against Maocha and trampled on him to his death,’’ she said.
Nombo Sandari, a ranger with Chingoli Wildlife Management Area also said: “Before his death, the deceased screamed to seek support from neighbouring farmers but in vain as there was nobody came out to rescue him.’’
He said the elephant strayed from Selous Game Reserve seeking for pastures and water.
Limbega Ally, Tunduru District Acting Wildlife Officer said: “we’ve dispatched a team of 11 rangers into the affected areas to help return all the elephants to their natural environment.’’
In 2017 another farmer was trampled to death by a herd of marauding elephants in the same district.
According to the most recent elephant census, published in June 2015, Tanzania has 43,000 elephants, down from 109,000 in 2009.
In the meantime, A Pakistani exchange student killed in a mass shooting in Texas on Friday was buried in her home town of Karachi on Wednesday, her coffin draped with Pakistan’s green and white flag.
Sabika Sheikh, 17, was among eight students and two teachers killed in Texas when Santa Fe High School, southeast of Houston, on Friday joined a grim list of U.S. schools and campuses where students and staff have been gunned down, stoking a divisive debate about gun laws.
Sheikh’s body arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday night and the funeral was held at a graveyard near her home in Karachi in the middle class Gulshe-e-Iqbal neighborhood.
Among about 400 people at the funeral was U.S. Ambassador David Hale and politicians from the provincial Sindh government.
Relatives carry the casket, wrapped in national flag and shawl, locally known as Ajrak, containing the body of Sabika.
“This innocent girl had gone to brighten the name of Pakistan,” Amir Khan, a senior leader of the Muttahida Quami Movement party which forms the city government in Karachi, told reporters at the funeral.
“But due to bad luck in a country that accuses the world of terrorism, she became a victim of terrorism herself.”
Sheikh’s father, Aziz, said earlier the thought of school shootings had never crossed his mind when he sent Sabika to study in the United States.
“Sabika’s case should become an example to change the gun laws,” Aziz Sheikh told Reuters.
Sabika was part of the YES exchange program funded by the U.S. State Department, which provides scholarships for students from countries with significant Muslim populations to spend an academic year in the United States.
She was due to return to Pakistan on June 9.
“I have no words to express my feelings,” family friend Mohammad Ali said after the coffin arrived at the family home. “It is a great loss to Pakistan.
She wanted to do a lot for this country.”