Teen TikTok star shot dead after "repeated rejections" of man, police say
Pakistani police on Tuesday said a 17-year-old TikTok star was shot dead by a man who had repeatedly contacted her online.
Sana Yousaf, who turned 17 last week and had more than a million followers across her social media accounts, was killed at her home in the capital Islamabad Monday evening.
Police have arrested a 22-year-old on suspicion of her murder. They say he spent hours loitering outside her home.
"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.
"It was a gruesome and cold-blooded murder," Rizvi added.
Yousaf had more than 800,000 followers on TikTok, which is wildly popular in Pakistan. She posted lip-sync videos, skincare tips and promotional content for beauty products.
In the last video posted on her account, hours before her murder, she was seen cutting a cake for her birthday.
"Rest in Peace" and "Justice for Sana," some comments under the video read.
Violence against women is pervasive in Pakistan according to the country's Human Rights Commission, and cases of women being attacked after rejecting marriage proposals are not uncommon.
In 2021, 27-year-old Noor Mukadam was beheaded by her Pakistani-American boyfriend, Zahir Jaffer, after she rejected his marriage proposal in a case that sparked widespread anger. Jaffer was sentenced to death.
In 2016, Khadija Siddiqui survived being stabbed 23 times by a jilted ex-boyfriend.
