Punjab police spokesperson Nabeela Ghazanfar said Baloch, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, was killed on Friday night at her family home on the outskirts of Multan in Punjab province. Police suspect her brother, Waseem Ahmed Azeem, who has since gone missing, of her death, the New York Times reports.
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In June, Baloch posted photographs of herself with a well-known Muslim cleric, Mufti Abdul Qavi, which attracted much attention on social media.
“I was 17 years old when my parents forced an uneducated man on me”, she said. The pictures and allegations caused a scandal in conservative Pakistan, and the government removed Qavi from the official moon-sighting committee that determines when Ramzan starts and ends in accordance with the Islamic lunar calendar. Qavi was suspended from his post as a result of Baloch’s photo.
Hassan Chaoudhry, a reporter for local paper Express Tribune, told CNN he had spoken to Baloch on the phone just two days ago, saying she was sobbing and “feared for her life”. Five ambulances were also parked nearby. “As a women [sic] we must stand up for each other”.
Qandeel Baloch arrives for a press conference in Lahore in late June.
Her murder comes four months after Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission published a report showing that honor killings are on the rise in Pakistan.
More than 500 people – nearly all women – die in Pakistan each year in such killings, usually carried out by members of the victim’s family meting out punishment for bringing “shame” on the community.
Ms Qandeel Baloch, dubbed Pakistan’s “Kim Kardashian” for the sexy photos she shared online, was held up by numerous country’s youth for her willingness to break social taboos but condemned and reviled by traditional elements. In one typical comment, Twitter user @JiaAli wrote: “Someone had to do it. She was a disgrace”. Baloch’s father Azeem Ahmad said. “You made us laugh, and you made us applaud”, adding that history would remember her as a “provocateur”. Her fame skyrocketed in March when she posted a video promising to do a striptease for the captain of the Pakistani cricket team if they won the championships.
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After her death, #QandeelBaloch began trending on Twitter in Pakistan, with many people offering support for her efforts to make Pakistan a more liberal society for women.
