The Rawalpindi Police on Wednesday said they arrested a man for allegedly killing his daughter for ‘honour’ over not deleting her account on social media platform TikTok.
The first information report (FIR) of the case was registered at Rawat Police Station a day ago on the complaint of Head Constable Shahbaz Anjum Kayani under Section 302 (Punishment of qatl-i-amd), and Section 311 (Waiver or compounding of qisas) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Under Section 311, the state becomes the complainant, as this provision is non-compoundable, and the case must proceed to a logical conclusion. The punishment for ‘honour’ killings, under Sections 311 and 302, includes the death sentence or life imprisonment. The option for a 25-year sentence under Section 302C is not applicable when Section 311 is invoked.
The FIR said the incident occurred at 11:30am a day ago in Dhok Chaudhrian, within the limits of the Rawat Police Station when Kayani received a tipoff from a source about the suspect asking his daughter to delete her TikTok account, but she refused. He added that the suspect was angered and shot his daughter in the name of ‘honour’, fleeing after the crime.
A statement from the police said they had arrested the victim’s father and recovered the murder weapon, a pistol, from his possession, adding that three teams were formed under the supervision of Saddar Superintendent of Police Nabeel Khokhar for the task.
Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Syed Khalid Mehmood Hamdani told Dawn.com that the “police registered the case as a complaint because the family of the deceased was portraying the incident as suicide. Later, police investigation revealed it was a murder. The police filed the case to avoid any compromise in future.
“Similar cases were registered earlier too, but when a family member becomes the complainant, they reach a compromise after six months or a year. Police registered the case as the complaintant to charge the suspect with solid evidence.”
The police further said that the postmortem analysis had been conducted, evidence was collected from the crime scene and investigations were ongoing from all angles.
“Crimes against women and children are intolerable; the accused will be prosecuted with solid evidence and ensured a just punishment,” the CPO said.
TikTok is wildly popular in Pakistan, in part because of its accessibility to a population with low literacy levels. On it, women have found both audience and income, rare in a country where fewer than a quarter of the women participate in the formal economy.
Last month, popular social media influencer, Sana Yousuf, was shot dead at her house in Islamabad by a man whose advances she had repeatedly rejected, police said.
Yousaf had racked up more than a million followers on social media. The incident sparked public outrage and widespread media coverage. The case remains under investigation.
Cases of honour killings are prevalent in Pakistan. From January to November last year, a total of 346 people fell victim to ‘honour’ crimes in the country.
The previous two years also saw a consistent rise in murders related to so-called ‘honour’. In 2023, the country saw a total of 490 ‘honour’ killing incidents taking place, while in 2022, as many as 590 people lost their lives to ‘honour’ killings.
In January, a man who had recently brought his family back to Pakistan from the United States confessed to shooting dead his teenage daughter, motivated by his disapproval of her TikTok content.
In December, Amina Bibi, a mother of three, was shot dead by her brother, Zafar Hussain, in the Qasimpur area of Pakpattan. Hussain told the police he thought his sister had a “questionable character”.
In November, a mother of five was brutally killed in Faisalabad by her husband and younger brother, allegedly to protect the family’s ‘honour’. Accused of having an affair, the victim was attacked at home with bricks, leading to fatal injuries. Her body was later dumped in a nullah through a donkey cart.
A man murdered four women in his family in October, including his mother, in a fit of rage over their TikTok videos. He told the police the videos spread “immodesty and shamelessness, tarnishing the family’s reputation”.
