A 17-year-old Pakistani exchange student killed in last week's mass shooting at Santa Fe High School was laid to rest Wednesday in her hometown of Karachi.
Sabika Sheikh was among 10 students and staff slain Friday at Santa Fe High School. The suspect, 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, is being held on capital murder charges.
Sabika had planned to return home in a few weeks for Eid al-Fitr, the three-day holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
In an interview with NBC News, Sabika's father pleaded with the U.S. government, and specifically the Trump administration, to take action to protect schoolchildren.
"We used to think that our kids aren't safe in a place like Pakistan — that Pakistan's image isn't good and our conditions aren't good," Abdul Aziz Sheikh said in his native Urdu. "Such bad things don't happen in America, and my daughter would be safe going there."
Sabika was her family's oldest child and began classes at Santa Fe High last August. Her American host family fasted with her to commemorate Ramadan.
The girl was living a dream that many Pakistani children have: to experience life in the United States, where there's the promise of security and opportunity.
She hoped to one day join Pakistan's foreign service. But early Wednesday, she returned home in a coffin.
Her tearful father went to the Karachi airport to receive her body.
Thousands of mourners, including the provincial governor, attended her funeral at a city mosque. The green and white Pakistan flag covered her coffin.
"Before her death, she was just my daughter, but now she is the daughter of Pakistan, and it is only because of the love of people, who mourned her killing," Sheikh said.
The father has said he hopes her death will lead to stricter gun control in the United States to keep teenagers from getting their hands on weapons.
"You are in power; you are the government," he said. "You can make rule and law. ... Kindly take serious action on this."
Her uncle, Muhammad Ali Muscati, told NBC News that he wants Pakistani students to continue seeking scholarships abroad.
"We should prove that we can go abroad and show our talent, not just here," he said in Urdu. "We have talent and we can use our talent outside."
Sheikh acknowledged that his country has had a bad reputation with terrorism-related violence.
Pakistan requires gun owners to be licensed but the rules are poorly enforced, particularly in the tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan. Heavily armed militant groups have carried out scores of attacks in recent years.
"Karachi or Santa Fe, they're both safe and unsafe," Sheikh told NBC News. "But Pakistan gets highlighted as being dangerous and unsafe. There are dangers everywhere. Every place is both safe and unsafe."
In the U.S., the Santa Fe shooting reignited the debate over gun control.
Earlier this spring, President Donald Trump signed a spending deal that will beef up gun background checks and allow the federal government to study gun violence.
"My administration is determined to do everything in our power to protect our students, secure our schools and to keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others," Trump said after the Santa Fe shooting last week.
The Justice Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have proposed a ban on bump stocks, the devices that were found in the hotel room of a sniper who killed nearly 60 people at a Las Vegas concert last fall.
Breaking News editor Matt Peterson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
