Anwar ul-Haq, who had recently moved his family back to Pakistan from the US, was charged with murder after admitting he shot dead his teenage daughter, Hira over her TikTok videos
A dad has confessed to killing his own 15-year-old daughter after she refused to stop posting TikTok videos, according to police.
Anwar ul-Haq, who had recently moved his family back to Pakistan from the US, was charged with murder after admitting he shot dead his teenage daughter, Hira, in the south-western city of Quetta on Tuesday. Despite initially telling police that unidentified men were behind the shooting, the dad later admitted to the killing after telling investigators he found his daughter’s online posts “objectionable.”
Ul-Haq, who has US citizenship, is reported to have forbidden his daughter from making TikTok videos he believed were “inappropriate” and the family “had an objection to her dressing, lifestyle and social gathering,’ according to police. Authorities confirmed they are investigating the motives behind the killing, including the possibility of an honour killing.
According to human rights groups, hundreds of mostly women are killed in “honour killings” in Pakistan each year. They are normally carried out by relatives who believe they are acting in defence of their family’s honour.
The family, who had lived in the US for 25 years, had just recently moved back to Pakistan. Hira had started uploading content on TikTok in the US before the murder. Her phone is now being investigated by police. Her dad’s brother-in-law was also arrested in connection with the murder.
If ul-Haq if found guilty of the honour killing, the pair will face a mandatory life sentence. In 2023, a Pakistaini couple were sentenced to life sentences by Italian authorities after their 18-year-old daughter refused an arranged marriage.
Sama Abbas’ body was found at a farmhouse in northern Italy in November 2022, 18 months after she disappeared. The teen had emigrated with her family from Pakistan to the farm town of Novellara in 2016 and she began dating a young man of Pakistani origin. However, a photo of them kissing on the street in Bologna is said to have drawn the fury of her parents.
According to investigators, her parents wanted her to travel to Pakistan for an arranged marriage in 2020, but she refused. She spent several months living under the protection of social services from October that year, but returned to the family home in late April 2021 after a flurry of messages from her family. Then, she disappeared before being found dead with a broken neck bone, possibly as a result of being strangled.
Her dad, Shabbar Abbas, was arrested in Pakistan and extradited to be tried for her murder. Her mum, Nazia Shaheen, was convicted in her absence with it believed she was hiding in Pakistan. Shabbar Abbas made a plea to the court early on, saying that “never in my life did I think of killing my daughter”. The teen’s uncle, Danish Hasnain, was handed 14 years in jail for involvement in the murder but two of her cousins were cleared.
