The brother of a murdered Pakistani reality star has defended his decision to kill his sister ‘for honour’.
In a shocking press conference, Muhammad Wasim, who has been arrested over the death of his sister Qandeel Baloch, 26, claimed he is ‘not embarrassed’ about strangling her because her behaviour ‘was completely intolerable’.
Qandeel’s social media presence and feminist attitudes made her a somewhat controversial figure in the Muslim nation, with many dubbing her as Pakistan’s answer to Kim Kardashian.
Wasim explained to reporters how he drugged her sister before killing her in their family home in Multan.
He said:
Yes of course, I strangled her. She was on the ground floor while our parents were asleep on the roof top. It was around 10.45 pm when I gave her a tablet and then killed her. I am not embarrassed at all over what I did. Whatever was the case, it [her behaviour] was completely intolerable.
Wasim absconded after his sister’s death, but was eventually tracked down by police officers in a neighbouring district, where he confessed to his crime.
Multan City police chief Azhar Akram said that Wasim told them he did it ‘after her recent objectionable videos’ which she mostly posted on Facebook.
Baloch often claimed that she faced death threats after such videos, but her requests to the authorities for protection were sadly ignored.
Hundreds of women are murdered for ‘honour’ every year in Pakistan, with the law stating that the murderer can walk free if the victim’s family agrees to forgive them.
Shockingly, these murders are usually not prosecuted and often turn out to be carried out by family members themselves, just like in this case.
Many took to the capital Lahore to mourn her death, with an online petition now going viral to demand accountability over her horrific death.
Speaking about Baloch, columnist and activist Aisha Sarawari said:
Qandeel was an extremely astute individual who knew that what she was doing was more than being the most loved bad girl of Pakistan.
She added that her killing ‘defines yet another setback for the women of our generation. This makes it harder for women. Period’.
