A Pakistani man suspected of killing his US-born 15-year-old daughter in a so-called honor killing after she apparently refused to stop sharing videos on TikTok appeared in court Thursday in the southwestern city of Quetta, police said.
The man, who was arrested Wednesday, recently moved his family back to Pakistan from the United States, police said.
The shooting happened on Tuesday in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, said Babar Baloch, a local police chief.
He said the father of the teenager initially suggested that an unidentified gunman had killed his daughter, but after he was taken into custody for questioning he confessed to the crime.
Baloch said the man’s brother-in-law was also arrested in connection with the killing, and that both men had apparently objected to the girl’s sharing of “objectionable” content on TikTok, a social media platform used by 54 million people in Pakistan.
Baloch said a judge has allowed police to keep the two men in custody for 10 days during an investigation.
So-called honor killings are common in Pakistan, where family members and relatives sometimes kill women who don’t follow local traditions and culture or decide to marry someone of their own choice.
More than 54 million people use TikTok in Pakistan, a nation of 241 million.
The government has blocked the video-sharing app several times in recent years over content moderation.
Islamabad often takes issue with what it terms “obscene content” with the social media platform, which has lately started complying with requests from Pakistan to remove certain content.
Over 1,000 women are killed each year in Pakistan at the hands of community or family members over perceived damage to “honour”, according to independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
That could involve eloping, posting social media content, fraternising with men, or any other infraction against conservative values relating to women.
