Mahmud, 40, was the director of T2F [The Second Floor], a café and arts space that has been a mainstay of Karachi’s activists since it opened its doors in 2007. She was one of the country’s most outspoken human rights advocates.

Mahmud was shot four times at close range, with bullets going through her shoulder, chest and abdomen, police told Al Jazeera. She was pronounced dead on arrival at the National Medical Centre hospital at 9.40pm.

Mahmud had been on her way from the event, along with her mother, when her car came under fire from unidentified gunmen, according to police.

Her mother was also shot twice, but was undergoing treatment in hospital and was out of immediate danger, hospital officials said.

Mahmud had been present at the opening of a discussion called "Unsilencing Balochistan," hosted at T2F, where prominent Baloch rights activists Mama Qadeer, Farzana Majeed and Muhammad Ali Talpur had been speaking.