Islamabad: Saudi Arabia has handed over social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch's brother, an absconding suspect in her gruesome murder, to Pakistan, days after he was arrested in the Gulf kingdom, according to a media report.
Fouzia Azeem, better known as Qandeel, was strangled to death by her brother Waseem Khan at her home in Multan in the Punjab province on July 15, 2016, in a chilling murder that sent shock waves across Pakistan, triggering an outpouring of grief on social media and igniting fierce debate over the prevalence of "honour killings" of women.
Waseem had confessed to the murder of his 26-year-old sister and said she had brought "disrepute" to the "family's honour" with her risque videos and statements posted on social media.
The International Criminal Police Organization's (Interpol) cell in Saudi Arabia arrested Muzaffar Iqbal, brother and suspect in Qandeel's murder, on Wednesday as part of their job to tackle international crime, Geo News reported. The arrest was made on the Pakistani government's 2016 request to Saudi Arabia as Iqbal was residing in the country at the time. Iqbal has been accused of aiding and abetting in Qandeel's murder, the report said.
Following Qandeel's murder, her father Muhammad Azeem Baloch had lodged a murder case against his son, accomplice Haq Nawaz and others. An affidavit submitted by the parents in 2016 had also named two of their other sons, Aslam Shaheen and Arif. In October last year, Arif, another absconding suspect and brother, was arrested with the help of Interpol from Saudi Arabia and transferred to Multan.
In September, a model court had sentenced Waseem to life in prison for murdering his sister after he admitted to drugging and killing his sister. Six others, including Mufti Abdul Qavi and Qandeel's two brothers Shaheen and Arif were acquitted in the case.
On August 22, the court had rejected the August 21 appeal of late model's parents to acquit their sons as they had forgiven them. Prior to that, however, her parents had refused to pardon their sons and had called for capital punishment in the case.
Qandeel had become famous for her bold social media pictures, videos and comments. But those posts in which she spoke of trying to change "the typical orthodox mindset" of people in Pakistan were considered outrageous by the largely conservative Pakistani community.
Described as Pakistan's Kim Kardashian, Qandeel built a modelling career on the back of her social media fame. She faced frequent backlash and death threats, but continued to post her pictures and videos.
The 2016 killing sparked fierce debate in Pakistan over the prevalence of "honour killings" of women. Every year over 1,000 women are murdered in Pakistan in so called 'honour killings' committed by their male relatives.
Qandeel's murder restarted the debate in the Muslim-majority country that led to the passing of an amendment to Pakistan's Penal Code in October 2016, allowing the police to take over from the victim's family as the main complainant in the case of an "honour killing". The amendment made it impossible for Qandeel's family to use the country's laws that allow close relatives of murder victims to pardon the killers.
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