Pakistan lost a beautifully spirited soul on Friday night — someone who believed in a different Pakistan, as she rallied for positive, constructive dialogue in a bitter, intolerant society.

Sabeen Mahmud, a popular activist, was gunned down by unidentified gunmen in Karachi, as she returned home after hosting a contentious event on the turmoil in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

The event was held at The Second Floor, or T2F — as all who frequent it, lovingly call it. Formed in 2007, it is Sabeen’s brilliant brainchild, and combines an eclectic café, library and community space for events and innovative ventures — a perfect “public sphere,” if I may borrow the term from Habermas. Since its inception T2F has hosted hundreds of book readings, exhibitions, theater performances and public discussions, some funny, others informative and yet others outright controversial. This event was one of them.

I did not know Sabeen personally though I did see her sometimes — on the streets of Karachi, as she mobilized the community to participate in protests and vigils, and at T2F, where she could be found helping people find realization for their dreams. Those who did know her, speak of a fearless woman who believed in peacefully challenging the status quo to change Karachi.

She fought against convention, defiant as she took on battles of the city’s underdogs. Yet, she also listened and negotiated with everyone, but without aiming to change people’s opinions. Rather, she was all about hearing new ideas, and understanding viewpoints other than her own.

And really, she did host just about everyone at T2F. There were young people, who had simplistic ideas and childish questions to ask of her, and the older ones, who were critical cynics who refused to believe in the possibilities that a productive dialogue had to offer. Yet, Sabeen encouraged and inspired everyone she met, turning T2F into the kind of place where anyone who had something to say, could find a platform.

Her aura of remarkable fearlessness and a politeness often shamed those who opposed Sabeen, and that is what made her stand out — and apparently scare — those who opposed her battles strongly enough, to want to pump five bullets into her body and shatter her idealistic thoughts of a more equal and just society.

While this callous lack of value for a person’s life in Karachi, where even the law agencies seem unwilling or unable to help, is terrifying, fear is exactly the sort of response that Sabeen’s cowardly murderers must have hoped to elicit from the rest of us who dare to believe in the importance of civil rights for everyone.

What might be a better response would be a decision on our parts to end this silent complacency to all kinds of oppression and injustice in the country. Defiance comes in many forms, but in all fairness, Sabeen’s legacy would live on best if we were to believe in the strength of us as a people, united in purpose — and also in peace, for she was a peacenik for sure.

Yet, even as I write this, I am not sure if I can advocate the “unity of us as a people” theory anymore, not when along with the several eulogies about Sabeen, there are also countless conspiracy theories doing the rounds on social media — criticizing her initiatives, questioning the source of funding for her events, and then, of course the usual “whodunit” theories about her murder — all derogatory to the brave woman that she was. Yet, despite the endless hurdles in her battles everyday — the last one culminating in her death, she never gave up believing in “people power.” I guess I shouldn’t either.