By Neha Rashid

Members of Education City community are mourning the loss of a student from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q).

More than 100 students, faculty and staff gathered on Tuesday night at the Qatar Foundation female residence halls to provide support and condolences to one another.

The student, Muhammad Hashir,  was a Computer Science junior at CMU-Q from Karachi, Pakistan. He had taken a semester off his studies and was in Saudi Arabia with family.

An email sent out by Ilker Baybars, Dean of CMUQ, earlier on Tuesday, noted that Hashir had passed away in Saudi Arabia.

The gathering saw counselors from various branch campuses across Education City attend to provide support for Hashir’s friends and loved ones.

MinKyung Kang, a junior at CMU-Q said that she thought Hashir was just introverted. She would call him a “rockstar” after he performed at Tartans Got Talent.

Many other friends of Hashir complimented his talents. One friend from high school said he was an amazing musician, “even compared to professionals. At the same time, he was intelligent.”

Others commented on how charming and happy Hashir always seemed. A friend of his said it was “a shame to see someone so sociable, so caring, gone.”

“Yes, he had his failures. Everyone does. But this is not how it was supposed to end,” said another member at the gathering.

 Patricia Collins, Health and Wellness Counselor at Northwestern University in Qatar, advises Hashir’s friends and loved ones that “being gentle with yourself” is the only way to cope with this difficult time.

“It’s important to be compassionate with yourself right now and recognize that you’re gonna feel a lot of things during this time. The most important thing is to find trusted people, that love you and you love them, to talk about it. Cause talking is a way to relieve these feelings that you’re having,” said Collins.

She further advised people suffering from depression to be brave and, “be able to say ‘I need help’, and not be ashamed to ask for help.”

“People do not think about suicide unless they’re suffering from untreated depression. They’re hopeless, they feel helpless, and that’s because of the depression,” said Collins. She encouraged the community to look for training programs that can teach them how to help someone in depression and to “help someone who’s hurting and to know that they can save a life.”