The brother of a Pakistani social media star strangled to death has been arrested for her murder and confessed to killing her “for honour”, police said on Sunday.
“The police arrested Muhammad Wasim, brother of Qandeel Baloch, for killing his sister late on Saturday,” Multan City police Chief Azhar Akram said. “Wasim confessed to his crime, saying he killed his sister for honour after her recent objectionable videos, mostly posted on Facebook.”
Wasim told police he drugged his sister and then strangled her.
“There were other issues as well…Like the Maulvi issue,” he said, in an apparent reference to a controversy surrounding Qandeel’s selfies with Mufti Abdul Qavi, which hit the headlines last month.
Her controversial pictures recently led to the suspension of Mufti Qavi’s membership from the Ruet-e-Hilal committee.
“She wasn’t aware I was killing her. I gave her a tablet and then strangled her,” he said.
Her father, Muhammad Azeem, claimed that she was killed by her younger brother Waseem in the name of honour.
In his police complaint, Qandeel’s father said his daughter came to Multan from Karachi to celebrate Eid with the family. He said Waseem, 25, also came to meet them on July 14.
He said that he along with his wife went to sleep on the rooftop while Qandeel slept in a room where Waseem strangled her to death as he was against her working in showbiz.
The father alleged that Waseem had taken this extreme step at the behest of his brother Mohammad Aslam Shaheen.
Baloch rose to fame for her provocative Facebook posts that saw her praised by some for breaking social taboos but condemned by conservatives.
She was killed on Friday night at her family’s home near Multan and her body was discovered on Saturday.
Wasim went on the run and was arrested late Saturday in neighbouring Muzaffargarh district.
