A 22-year-old man has been arrested in Pakistan and confessed to the murder of 17-year-old social media influencer Sana Yousaf, according to police.
Authorities say they believe Umar Hayat murdered Ms Yousaf at her home in Islamabad on Monday after she rejected what they called his “offers of friendship”. He allegedly also repeatedly tried and failed, to meet her.
They say he broke into her home, fired two shots, stole her phone and fled.
Ms Yousaf’s father, Syed Yousaf Hassan, told the BBC she was his only daughter, and was “very brave”. Her family have gathered in Chitral, where Ms Yousaf has been buried.
Mr Yousaf said she had never mentioned Hayat, nor any threatening behaviour, before she was killed.
He said Ms Yousaf’s aunt was at the family home when the suspect broke in, and that he had also threatened to shoot her before fleeing.
Ms Yousaf died before she could be taken to the hospital.
Police said the “brutal” murder caused “a wave of concern” across the country, and that there was “immense” pressure to find the killer.
They raided locations across the capital and the province of Punjab and scanned footage from 113 CCTV cameras.
The suspected murder weapon and Ms Yousaf’s phone have since been recovered.
Ms Yousaf already had a wide following in Pakistan, with half a million fans on Instagram before her death. Condolences have flooded her social media pages.
Her TikTok account gained hundreds of thousands of followers overnight, and now stands at more than a million.
Her last video on Instagram, posted last week, showed her surrounded by balloons and cutting a cake for her birthday.
Given her high profile in Pakistan, news of Ms Yousaf’s death spread quickly in local news media and on social media platforms. It’s also ignited a fierce debate about women on social media.
While many have shared their outrage at news of Ms Yousaf’s death, there has also been backlash towards her work as an influencer.
Digital rights advocacy group Bolo Bhi has been monitoring the online reaction, and its director Usama Khilji said such criticism had been coming from a small portion of mostly male internet users – some of whom have cited religious grounds.
“They’re asking why she was putting up all this content, and even suggesting the family should take down her Instagram and TikTok accounts because they add to her ‘sins’,” Mr Khilji explained.
Dr Farzana Bari, a prominent human rights activist, argued the reaction is “misogynistic” and “patriarchal”.
She said Ms Yousaf had “her own voice”, and that the discourse online is a reminder that social media has become a “very threatening place for female content creators” in Pakistan.
The Inspector General of Police for Islamabad, Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, said women who choose to become social media influencers “deserve our encouragement and support”. He added Ms Yousaf’s murder was “tragic”.
Dr Bari said authorities condemning the incident publicly was a positive sign that could lead to change.
The arrested suspect is the son of a former public servant. He is from the town of Faisalabad, in the province of Punjab, according to police.
