Police in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad have arrested a man accused of murdering a 17-year-old social media influencer, Sana Yousaf.
Yousaf, who had hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram, was shot dead at her home on Monday, the latest high-profile instance of suspected femicide in Pakistan.
Local media reported that Yousaf was shot dead at her home in Islamabad at about 5pm (12:00 GMT), according to a police report filed by Yousaf’s mother, Farzana Yousaf, seen by Pakistani news outlet, Dawn.
The report added that Yousaf was shot twice in her chest and was taken to a hospital but died of her injuries.
Yousaf was a social media influencer, originally from Chitral, a city about 400km (250 miles) north of Islamabad.
As of Wednesday, her TikTok account had 1.1 million followers. She often posted videos of herself lip syncing to songs. The last video posted on her account is a montage of her celebrating her birthday with her friends
On Tuesday, Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, Islamabad’s inspector general of police (IGP), told a media briefing that the police had arrested a suspect from Faisalabad, a city about 320km (200 miles) south of Islamabad, within 20 hours of the murder.
“The accused is a 22-year-old unemployed man who repeatedly attempted to contact the victim. Upon her refusal to respond, he committed the murder,” said Rizvi. (AlJazeera)