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Police said suspect Umar Hayat, a resident of Faisalabad, wanted to “become friends” with Yousaf but was shunned repeatedly by her
Pakistani TikToker Sana Yousaf was shot dead.
Sana Yousaf, the 17-year-old Pakistani TikTok star killed in Islamabad on Monday evening, was shot dead by a man who had repeatedly contacted her online but was rejected “again and again”, Pakistan Police have said.
Yousaf, who turned 17 on May 29 and had more than a million followers across her social media accounts, was killed in front of her mother and aunt at her home. Police have arrested a 22-year-old, identified as Umar Hayat, a resident of Faisalabad, on suspicion of her murder. Hayat reportedly spent hours loitering outside her home, news agency AFP reported.
“It was a case of repeated rejections. The boy was trying to reach out to her time and again,” Islamabad police chief Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi said during a news conference.
“A monster, cold-blooded murderer is now in the law’s grip,” said Rizvi, adding that the suspect wanted to “become friends” with Yousaf but was shunned repeatedly by her.
According to the police, Hayat had completed only his matriculation and hailed from a lower-middle-income background with “no source of income”. Investigators said in an effort to possibly erase evidence, he took Yousaf’s mobile phone with him after the shooting.
The First Information Report (FIR) filed by the 17-year-old’s mother said the shooter barged in with a pistol around 5pm and shot her daughter at point-blank range. She was hit by two bullets in the chest and despite being rushed to hospital, she could not survive.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi confirmed on X that the accused confessed to the murder and that the weapon had been found, debunking initial reports of an honour killing angle to the murder.
Yousaf hailed from Upper Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and had gained popularity for her videos promoting Chitrali traditions and women’s empowerment. She had gained popularity through her TikTok videos, where she was widely appreciated for highlighting Chitrali culture, advocating for women’s rights and promoting the importance of education.
Apoorva Misra is News Editor at News18.com with over nine years of experience. She is a graduate from Delhi University’s Lady Shri Ram College and holds a PG Diploma from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. M…Read More
Apoorva Misra is News Editor at News18.com with over nine years of experience. She is a graduate from Delhi University’s Lady Shri Ram College and holds a PG Diploma from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. M… Read More
- Location :
Islamabad, Pakistan
- First Published:
