Qandeel Baloch murder: Father wants son to be ‘shot at sight’

Qandeel, Azeem said, was his ‘best friend’ but claimed that his son Muhammad Waseem had been ‘crazed’. Qandeel’s mother also shared the pain of loosing their daughter. “We were mother and daughter, sharing all our sorrows and secrets. She used to tell me – ‘Your daughter is working hard, she’ll go far,” her mother was quoted as saying by BBC Urdu.

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Qandeel’s mother also said that she and her husband were also drugged by Waseem the night Qandeel was first sedated and then strangled to death. “My husband and I fell deeply asleep. We had drunk milk, it had been mixed with sedatives. In the morning, I called Qandeel for breakfast… but she didn’t get up,” she added.

Read more: Qandeel Baloch murder highlights how honour killings are still a deep menace affecting Pakistan society

Police had arrested Qandeel’s brother Waseem last week. He has admitted to strangling his sister to death for the “honour of the family”. Waseem said he gave her a tablet to subdue his sister and then strangled her in their family home over the weekend.

Waseem said he killed his sister due to her social media activities, which included a series of risque video posts with the prominent cleric, Mufti Qavi. Qavi, who was suspended from the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee in the controversy following the video posts, has also been included in the murder inquiry by the police.

Qandeel’s mother had accused Qavi, her daughter’s former husband Ashiq Hussain, and a man name Shahid of being involved in the murder. Prior to her death, Qandeel, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, spoke of worries about her safety and had appealed to the interior ministry to provide her with security.

In Facebook posts, she, spoke of trying to change “the typical orthodox mindset” of people in Pakistan. She faced frequent abuse and death threats but continued to post provocative pictures and videos. The so-called ‘honour-killing’ has sent shockwaves across the country and triggered an outpouring of grief on social media for Baloch.