The brother of a murdered Pakistani celebrity yesterday said he is “not embarrassed” to have killed her, as Qandeel Baloch’s death reignited polarising calls for action against the “epidemic” of honour killings.
The strangling of Baloch, judged by many in deeply conservative Muslim Pakistan as infamous for selfies and videos that by Western standards would appear tame, has prompted shock and revulsion.
“Yes of course, I strangled her,” Baloch’s brother Muhammad Wasim told reporters at a defiant press conference organised by police in the city of Multan early yesterday.
“She was on the ground floor while our parents were asleep on the roof top,” he continued. “It was around 10.45 pm when I gave her a tablet… and then killed her.”
“I am not embarrassed at all over what I did,” he said. “Whatever was the case, it (his sister’s behaviour) was completely intolerable.”
Baloch, believed to be in her twenties and whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, was killed on Friday night at her family’s home near Multan.
Her brother, arrested a day later after her father filed a police complaint against him for the killing, appeared in court briefly yesterday ahead of another hearing set for Wednesday.