Pakistani police announced on Tuesday the arrest of a man accused of murdering 17-year-old Sana Yousaf, a TikTok influencer with over 800,000 followers, after she ignored his online advances.
The young influencer was shot dead on Monday evening by a man seen loitering around her home for hours.
“She rejected him multiple times. He kept trying to contact her but was met with refusal,” Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, the capital’s police chief, explained.
“This is a horrific and cold-blooded murder,” he added.
Police arrested a 22-year-old man from the eastern town of Faisalabad, where he had fled.
Just hours before her death, Sana Yousaf, known for posting videos of herself singing, applying makeup, and promoting cosmetics, had shared a video of her cutting her birthday cake.
Online users have since commented: “Rest in peace” and “Justice for Sana.”
Others left remarks such as “You reap what you sow.”
“These are abhorrent comments,” says women’s rights activist Nighat Dad, who believes they “reflect a mindset that trivialises violence against women in Pakistan.”
In a country where 80% of women say they have been harassed in public places, such reactions encourage attackers to ‘silence women who dare to be visible,’ she adds.
Two weeks ago, Pakistan’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of a wealthy American-Pakistani heir who beheaded his girlfriend, Noor Mukadam, in July 2021 because she refused to marry him.
