Pakistani volunteers move the body of social media celebrity, Qandeel Baloch from her residence in Lahore on July 16, 2016.
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Qandeel Baloch, a 25-year-old social media star from Pakistan, was killed by her brother in her family home, reported several news outlets on Saturday.
On earlier reports, she told AFP that “people are going crazy-especially girls” after on Valentine’s Day, she posted a video going against the president’s message to stay away from “western” influence.
Police spokeswoman Nabila Ghazanfar says police were alerted to the killing Saturday and are investigating.
‘Apparently, it is honour killing but further investigations would reveal the real motives behind this murder’.
“Qandeel was killed by her brother over honour in Green Town area”, said regional police officer Sultan Azam when speaking to The Express Tribune.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach the family for comment. While her social media following was built up to over 100,000 followers on Instagram, and over 600,000 on Facebook, not all of those “fans” were true supporters, and Baloch often was criticized for her actions, such as controversially posting provocative selfies and proudly declaring she was a feminist.
Local media reported Baloch had travelled to Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, due to security fears.
Baloch’s death sparked an outpouring of grief on Twitter and other social media websites and reignited a debate about honour killings in Pakistan.
Hundreds of Pakistani woman are murdered by family members each year in so-called honor killings, which are seen as punishment for violating conservative norms. Baloch danced in a racy (again by Pakistani standards) video for a popular rap song that immediately went viral.
Many of her videos, including one where she offered to striptease if Pakistan beat India in a cricket match, enraged conservative Pakistanis. She was receiving anonymous death threats.
Despite that, she continued to be outspoken in her beliefs, saying in one recent Facebook post that “At least global media can see what i am up to”.
“She was killed because a pervasive misogynistic culture cultivates and protects a toxic masculinity”, the petition said. Mushtaq Ahmed, who was among the team that conducted Baloch’s autopsy.
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The exposure of her real name also drew criticism from some quarters who claimed using Baloch as her surname was disrespectful to the entire Baloch race.
