Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch has been killed by her brother in an apparent ‘honour killing’ in the province of Punjab, police say.Ms Baloch, 26, recently caused controversy by posting controversial pictures of herself on social media, including one alongside a Muslim cleric.Police say she was strangled to death.Cases of women being killed for ‘dishonouring’ their family are commonplace in Pakistan.Qandeel Baloch became a household name for posting bold, sometimes raunchy, photographs, video and comments.
The brother of murdered Pakistani celebrity Qandeel Baloch said he is “not ashamed” of his actions as he confessed to strangling her for “family honour”.
At a defiant press conference on Sunday, Wasim Azeem described his sister’s controversial showbusiness career as “intolerable”, and said he had killed Ms Baloch for bringing shame on his family’s name.
“Yes of course, I strangled her,” he said. “I am not ashamed. We are Baloch and as Baloch we cannot tolerate this. Money matters, but family honour is more important.I was determined either to kill myself or kill her,” he later added.
Ms Baloch, 26, a model turned reality star, achieved fame but angered many in Pakistan with a series of risqué photographs, videos and publicity stunts promoted through her highly popular Facebook account.
Dubbed “Pakistan’s Kim Kardashian”, Ms Baloch had recently courted controversy by posing for a series of irreverent “selfie” photographs with Mufti Abdul Qavi, a senior Muslim cleric, during Ramadan.