After a year of hostility, Pakistan and Afghanistan seek diplomatic reboot
Islamabad, Pakistan – When Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar landed in Kabul on April 19 for a daylong visit, it marked the first major trip by a senior Pakistani official to Afghanistan since February 2023.
Dar's visit came just days after senior military and intelligence officials from both countries had met in Kabul for the first time since January 2024.
These meetings follow months of strained relations between the neighbours amid frequent border skirmishes, Pakistan's decision to expel Afghan refugees, and repeated border closures that have disrupted business and trade.
Dar's trip, say analysts, signals a willingness from both sides to reset ties through diplomacy.
According to Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dar met Afghanistan's interim foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi. The two leaders held discussions on 'security, trade, transit, connectivity, and people-to-people contacts'.
The statement from the Afghan Foreign Ministry, however, did not mention security concerns and focused on issues such as 'situation of Afghan refugees, political relations, economic cooperation, trade, transit, large-scale joint projects, and other matters of mutual interest.'
At a news conference in Kabul following his meeting with Muttaqi, Dar said Pakistan has invited Afghan officials to Islamabad and called for open communication channels to resolve disputes between the two countries.
'We have requested our hosts that we have to work together for the progress, betterment and peace and security of the region. For that, neither will we allow anyone to use our soil to conduct illicit activities in Afghanistan, nor will you allow anyone to use your soil,' Dar said.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021 after the United States withdrew its troops, Pakistan has witnessed a sharp increase in violent attacks, particularly in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the southwestern province of Balochistan, both of which share borders with Afghanistan.
Islamabad has repeatedly alleged that Afghan soil is being used by armed groups, especially the Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, to launch attacks across the porous border.
Pakistan Taliban, founded in 2007, is ideologically aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan but operates independently. The Taliban has repeatedly rejected allegations that it allows its soil to be used for attacks against Pakistan, and has consistently denied any ties with the TTP.
Data from the Pak Institute For Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based conflict research organisation, shows that Pakistan experienced 521 attacks in 2024, a 70 percent increase from the previous year.
These incidents claimed 852 lives, a 23 percent rise, with 358 of those killed being law enforcement personnel. Most of the violence occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
Once seen as a benefactor of the Taliban, Pakistan has cited the uptick in violence as the main reason for its crackdown on hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees, many of whom have lived in the country for decades.
Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, welcoming several waves of displaced people as conflict continued in the country.
Following the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans returned home. However, the Taliban's dramatic return to power in August 2021 prompted another wave of displacement, with between 600,000 and 800,000 people seeking refuge in Pakistan.
Since the expulsion programme began in November 2023, nearly one million Afghan nationals have been forced to return, with the Pakistani government declaring that it would continue its repatriation drive.
Global rights organisations, as well as the Afghan government, have urged Pakistan to reconsider the decision and ensure the dignity of those being deported.
Despite rising hostilities between the two countries, including Pakistani air attacks on Afghan soil in December that killed at least 46 people, analysts see Dar's visit as 'significant' and suggestive of a broader resumption of dialogue.
Iftikhar Firdous, co-founder of The Khorasan Diary, a portal that tracks regional security issues, pointed out that this was the highest-level visit from Pakistan to Kabul since former Prime Minister Imran Khan's trip in November 2020.
'The visit by Dar included discussions on security, ease of business for traders, and continued conversations on cross-border issues,' Firdous told Al Jazeera.
The Islamabad-based analyst added that the recent meeting between military and intelligence officials indicates that backchannel efforts to resurrect diplomacy were under way even before Dar's trip.
'It was not a start, but instead a culmination of the agenda to re-engage with Afghanistan and break the ice,' he said.
Amina Khan, director of the Centre for Afghanistan, Middle East and Africa at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI), said both sides appear to be looking for ways to accommodate each other's concerns.
'For Pakistan, it is security, and for Kabul, it is trade. However, since both are intertwined, a comprehensive bilateral approach is needed. This trip appears to have initiated a dialogue. One will have to see if both sides can maintain the positive momentum,' she told Al Jazeera.
Khan added that Pakistan recognises the importance of Afghanistan to its own stability.
'Pakistan realises that, in order to achieve this, workable ties with Kabul are paramount, but at the same time it is pivotal for Kabul to address Pakistan's security concerns emanating from the TTP,' she said.
A United Nations report [PDF] published in February concluded that the Taliban continued to provide logistical, operational and financial support to the TTP. It added that the armed group has set up new training centres in border regions near Pakistan.
In response, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Afghan government spokesperson, denied the allegation, calling it a 'regular slander' against the country.
'The stance of the UN is misused. We call on the countries who are members of the UNSC but have good relations with Afghanistan to not allow the reputation of the organization to be harmed,' Mujahid said in February.
Khan of ISSI said the Taliban faces its own challenges while dealing with armed groups like the Pakistan Taliban.
'Pakistan understands the limitations of the Afghan Taliban in taking action against the TTP, who may very well join the ranks of so-called ISIS [ISIL] and take up arms against the government,' she said.
Meanwhile, the Taliban has stressed that the Afghan government is unhappy about the eviction of hundreds of thousands of Afghans by Pakistan.
Raising the issue of their forced repatriation in the meeting with Dar, Minister Muttaqi stressed the need for humane treatment and urged Pakistani authorities to protect the rights of Afghan nationals currently residing in Pakistan or returning from there.
The Pakistan Foreign Ministry statement, meanwhile, focused on the country's security concerns.
'The Deputy Prime Minister emphasised the paramount importance of addressing all pertinent issues, particularly those related to security and border management, in order to fully realise the potential for regional trade and connectivity,' the ministry's statement read.
Still, Khan, the analyst, said she believes that Dar's visit has broken the ice. Now, the key will be to 'remain engaged' and pursue a holistic approach to bilateral relations, she said.
'While security is a crucial aspect, it should not be the sole focus. Other aspects, such as diplomatic, economic, and cultural cooperation, must also be considered to build a balanced and sustainable partnership,' Khan said.
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How is Pakistan raising money for a 20 percent hike in defence spending?
Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan has increased its defence spending by more than 20 percent – the most substantial hike in a decade – following last month's military confrontation with neighbouring India. Presenting the annual federal budget on June 10, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb proposed an allocation of 2.55 trillion rupees ($9bn) for the country's three armed services – the army, air force and navy – amounting to 1.97 percent of Pakistan's gross domestic product (GDP), up from 1.7 percent in the previous budget. 'The security situation in the country is precarious, and the armed forces have rendered commendable service in protecting the borders,' Aurangzeb said during his speech, as India has threatened to carry out strikes if armed groups carry out attacks on India or Indian-administered Kashmir. But analysts say that Islamabad will need to walk a fine balance in spending more on defence at a time when its fragile economy is under strict oversight from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and cuts in social sector expenditure could embolden the opposition. On May 7, India carried out missile strikes on what it called 'terrorist infrastructure' in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir after blaming Islamabad for backing fighters responsible for the killing of 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir's Pahalgam town on April 22. Pakistan denied involvement in the Pahalgam attacks, demanding a 'credible, transparent, independent' investigation. Islamabad said innocent civilians were killed in India's attacks on May 7. Tensions escalated after the two nuclear-armed neighbours engaged in tit-for-tat missile and drone attacks over four days, primarily targeting each other's military installations. By the time a ceasefire was announced by United States President Donald Trump on May 10, in excess of 70 people had been killed – more than 50 in Pakistan and at least 20 in India. Against that backdrop, Pakistan's defence hike was expected, say analysts. India, which presented its budget before the conflict, also increased its defence spending to $78.7bn, a 9.5 percent rise from the previous year. But unlike India, Pakistan has more than a neighbour to keep an eye on: It also confronts pressure from the IMF. The IMF approved a 37-month, $7bn loan programme for Pakistan last September, its 25th since 1958. The most recent tranche of $1.3bn was released in May this year, a day before the ceasefire between India and Pakistan took place. But in exchange, the global lender has been pressuring Pakistan to streamline its expenditure, reduce subsidies and improve the efficiency of its governance structures. Pakistan appears to have paid heed to those demands from the IMF. Even as its defence spending has gone up substantially, its overall budget for the next fiscal year has been slashed by 17.57 trillion rupees ($62bn), marking a 6.9 percent decrease from last year. The defence spending hike, while massive, is in line with growing defence allocation in recent years. The military's budget has nearly doubled in the past five years. In fiscal year 2020-21, the allocation stood at 1.28 trillion rupees ($4.53bn). The army, long seen as the most powerful institution in Pakistan's defence and political spheres, has received 1.17 trillion rupees ($4.1bn), accounting for nearly 46 percent of the total defence budget. The air force and navy received just more than 520 billion rupees ($1.8m) and 265.9 billion rupees ($941m), respectively. Pakistan's military budget increase also reflects a broader global trend. A report published in April by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which specialises in conflict and arms control research, stated that global military expenditure reached $2.7 trillion in 2024, a 9.4 percent increase from the previous year and the 'steepest year-on-year rise since the end of the Cold War'. Hina Shaikh, a Lahore-based economist with the International Growth Centre (IGC), said the increase in Pakistan was expected and reflects the government's continued prioritisation of security amid geopolitical tensions and domestic instability. 'While understandable from a strategic lens, this increase does come when economic recovery is just beginning to happen, but still fragile, inflation is easing and fiscal space is constrained,' she told Al Jazeera. Ali Hasanain, an economics professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), called the hike in defence spending both 'inevitable and necessary' but warned against sacrificing long-term development. 'The only way out of this dilemma for Pakistan is to undertake deep structural reforms of the sort which no government has shown a commitment to yet, so that both the economy and defence spending can stay robust over the medium and long terms,' Hasanain said. While most analysts agree that the defence spending hike is a fallout of the May conflict, a major challenge for the government is to fund it without compromising the social welfare, health, or education sectors. Due to Pakistan's sizable external debt, recorded at $87.4bn according to the latest government figures, the largest share of the national budget is consumed by debt servicing, which stands at $29bn, which is almost 47 percent of total expenditure. In the budget announced on Tuesday, Pakistan's government has cut subsidies. The budget also outlines plans to expand the tax base, removes exemptions, and introduces new taxes to raise public revenue. The opposition party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan dubbed the budget 'anti-people' and 'crafted for the elite.' The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which remains banned, said on Wednesday that the budget provided no real relief to the public, as government staff salary raises were low and agriculture, the mainstay of the country's economy, witnessed decline. Sajid Amin Javed, a senior economist at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), said that the combination of a decline in the interest payments Pakistan owes its debtors this year, and the cut in subsidies had provided the government 'some fiscal space'. Still, others highlighted that Pakistan's defence spending, while the highest in South Asia as a percentage of GDP, has declined in relative terms compared to past decades as it has been forced to set money aside to repay loans. Hasanain of LUMS said that Pakistan now spends less, as a percentage of GDP, than countries like Singapore (2.8 percent), Greece (3.1 percent), Poland (4.2 percent), or the United States (3.4 percent), and nearly three times less than Saudi Arabia (7.3 percent), Russia (7.1 percent), or Israel (8.8 percent). But he pointed out that Pakistan also collects far less tax than most other countries, so the defence spending hike still eats up a giant chunk of the government's revenue. 'A low tax to GDP ratio means that defence spending is a bigger burden for the government in Pakistan than most other countries in the world.' The last few years have been deeply turbulent for Pakistan's economy. Foreign reserves fell to just under $3bn in 2023, bringing the country of 250 million people to the brink of default. Foreign reserves have since risen to $11bn following IMF deals. Similarly, the Pakistani rupee, having lost more than 60 percent of its value against the US dollar over the last two years, has now stabilised between 280 and 282 rupees per dollar. Javed of SDPI says these indicators show Pakistan's macroeconomic fundamentals are stabilising, but the public impact remains uncertain. 'It is a budget of stabilisation, made in consultation with the IMF, to ensure that the country's revenue, growth and fiscal deficit targets are met. But on the whole, it remains a traditional budget, with no deep-rooted structural changes or strategic change visible, at least for now,' he said. Economist Shaikh argued that the budget lacks inclusive or pro-poor reforms and shows limited investment in sectors like health and education. 'This may be called a technocrat's budget under IMF constraints, fiscally conservative, tax-heavy, and focused on short-term stabilisation. It is focused on restoring macroeconomic stability, controlling inflation, and building reserves,' she said. Hasanain, however, says that the IMF principally concerns itself with helping countries move back towards stability, and does not consider long-term, sustainable growth as its purview. 'By cutting expenditures and running primary budget surpluses, the government is indeed moving out of the acute debt crisis it found itself in two years ago, but the larger project of correcting longstanding structural deficiencies is, despite receiving some lip service, largely neglected to date,' he said. 'Given the lack of any serious political opposition, this excessive caution towards reform is deeply frustrating.'
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
Are India and Pakistan preparing for a naval face-off in a future conflict?
Islamabad, Pakistan – When Indian Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh visited the Indian Navy's aircraft carrier INS Vikrant on May 30, nearly three weeks after a ceasefire was announced with Pakistan after a four-day conflict, he had stern words for Islamabad. Wearing an Indian Navy baseball cap, with his initial 'R' emblazoned on it, Singh declared that Pakistan was fortunate the Indian Navy had not been called upon during the recent hostilities. 'Despite remaining silent, the Indian Navy succeeded in tying down the Pakistani Army. Just imagine what will happen when someone who can keep a country's army locked in a bottle, even by remaining silent, speaks up?' Singh said, standing in front of a Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jet on the deck of the 262-metre-long (860 feet) ship. Just two days later, on June 1, the Pakistan Navy issued a pointed response. In a message posted on X, it announced a two-day exercise, 'focusing on countering sub-conventional and asymmetric threats across all major ports and harbours of Pakistan'. These symbolic shows of strength followed India's 'Operation Sindoor' and Pakistan's 'Operation Bunyan Marsoos', the countries' respective codenames for the four-day conflict that ended in a ceasefire on May 10. The standoff was triggered by an April 22 attack in Pahalgam, in Indian-administered Kashmir, in which 26 civilians, almost all tourists, were killed. India blamed armed groups allegedly backed by Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denied. On May 7, India launched missile strikes at multiple sites in Pakistan's Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killing at least 51 people, including 11 soldiers and several children. Over the next three days, the two countries exchanged artillery and air power, hitting each other's airbases. The 96 hours of conflict brought 1.6 billion people to the brink of war. But while the navies largely remained passive observers, they monitored each other's movements – and were ready for action. Satellite imagery showed that the INS Vikrant moved towards Pakistan soon after the Pahalgam attack and remained deployed for four days in the Arabian Sea before returning to its base in Karnataka. Pakistan also mobilised its fleet, which was bolstered by the docking of a Turkish naval ship in Karachi on May 2. According to the Pakistani Navy, Turkish personnel engaged in 'a series of professional interactions' with their counterparts. Now, even amid the current pause in military tensions, analysts say Singh's remarks and Pakistan's naval drills highlight the growing part that maritime forces could play in the next chapter of their conflict. This is a role the Indian and Pakistani navies are well-versed in. After independence from Britain in August 1947, India inherited two-thirds of British India's naval assets. These saw no use during the first India-Pakistan war in 1947, over the contested Himalayan region of Kashmir. India and Pakistan both administer parts of Kashmir, along with China, which governs two thin strips. India claims all of Kashmir, while Pakistan claims all the parts not controlled by China, its ally. By the 1965 war, also over Kashmir, Pakistan had expanded its fleet with aid from the United States and United Kingdom, its Cold War allies. It had acquired Ghazi, a long-range submarine, giving it an edge over India, which lacked a submarine at the time, though it owned an aircraft carrier. Pakistan, to date, does not have an aircraft carrier. While the land war started on September 6, the Pakistan Navy joined the conflict on the night of September 7-8. A fleet of seven warships and submarine PNS Ghazi left Karachi harbour and made their way towards the Indian naval base of Dwarka in the western state of Gujarat, roughly 350km (217 miles) away. They were tasked with carrying out the 'bombardment of Dwarka about midnight using 50 rounds per ship', according to the Pakistan Navy's official account, targeting the base's radar and other installations. The selection of Dwarka was significant from a historical and strategic perspective. The city is home to one of the most sacred sites for Hindus, the Somnath Temple, on which the Pakistan Navy named its operation. Militarily, the radar installations in Dwarka were used to provide guidance to the Indian Air Force. Knocking them out would have made it harder for India to launch aerial attacks against Pakistani cities, especially Karachi. That, in turn, would have forced India to send out its warships from the nearby port of Bombay (now Mumbai) – and PNS Ghazi, the submarine, could have ambushed them. But the Pakistani plan only partly worked. Many Indian warships were under maintenance, and so the Indian Navy did not send them out to chase the Pakistani fleet. According to the Pakistan Navy's accounts, after firing about 350 rounds, the operation ended in 'four minutes' and all its ships returned safely. Syed Muhammad Obaidullah, a former commodore in the Pakistan Navy, recalled the attack. 'We were able to send eight vessels, seven ships and a submarine – that surprised the Indians, as our ships targeted the radar station used to assist Indian planes,' Obaidullah told Al Jazeera. Muhammad Shareh Qazi, a Lahore-based maritime security expert, added that the operation was a tactical surprise, but did not lead to any gains in territory or of the maritime continental shelf. 'All our ships returned safely, without resistance, but it was only an operational-level success for the PN, not a strategic one,' he said, referring to the Pakistan Navy. Official Indian Navy records claim that most of the shells fired by Pakistani ships caused no damage and remained unexploded. Anjali Ghosh, a professor of international relations at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, in her book India's Foreign Policy, described the attack as 'daring' but symbolic rather than strategically 1971 war, fought over East Pakistan's secession to become Bangladesh, saw more substantial naval engagements. India launched two operations – Trident and Python – which dealt major blows to Pakistan's Navy, sinking several ships, including the destroyer PNS Khaibar and minesweeper PNS Muhafiz, and destroying fuel tanks at Karachi Harbour. Uday Bhaskar, a former commodore in the Indian Navy, said the navy played a pivotal role in India's 1971 victory. 'The naval role enabled the final outcome on land,' Bhaskar, the current director of the Society for Policy Studies, an independent think tank based in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera. Pakistan also suffered the loss of its prized submarine Ghazi, which sank while laying mines near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, home to India's Eastern Naval Command. The one major victory for the Pakistani Navy was its torpedoing of the Indian frigate INS Khukri using its submarine Hangor, which killed more than 170 Indian sailors. Qazi, who is also an assistant professor at Lahore's Punjab University, said that the Indian Navy replicated the Pakistani playbook from the 1965 war in the way it surprised the Pakistan Navy. 'India caused a heavy blow to Pakistan and our naval capabilities were severely dented,' he said. Since the 1971 war, India and Pakistan have approached different naval strategies. Obaidullah, who retired from the Pakistan Navy in 2008, said that India has tried to build a 'blue water navy' capable of projecting power across oceans. The idea: 'To assert its dominance in [the] Indian Ocean,' he said. Qazi, the maritime expert, agreed, saying that the Indian Navy has focused not just on building a numerical advantage in its naval assets but also on partnerships with nations such as Russia, which have helped it develop a powerful fleet. 'The Indian Navy now has the ability to conduct missions that can cover long distances, all the way down to Mauritius near southern Africa, or even some adventures in [the] Pacific Ocean as well,' he said. As the world's fifth-largest economy, India has invested heavily in naval development. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a London-based research institute focusing on defence and security issues, India has 29 principal surface combat vessels, including two aircraft carriers, 12 destroyers, 15 frigates and 18 submarines, of which two are nuclear-powered. Pakistan, by contrast, has prioritised its land and air forces. Its navy has grown more slowly, mainly through cooperation with China and Turkiye. It regularly holds major naval exercises with its allies, with the last one taking place in February this year. IISS data shows that Pakistan's navy lacks aircraft carriers and destroyers but includes 11 frigates, eight submarines and at least 21 patrol vessels. Obaidullah explained that Pakistan's naval ambitions and objectives are very different from those of India. 'India aims to project global power. We have a defensive navy to secure our sea lines of communication and deter aggression,' the former naval officer said. With more than 95 percent of Pakistan's trade sea-based, protecting maritime routes is its top priority. Maritime expert Qazi also said that the Pakistani Navy is focused on defending its 'littoral zones'. From a naval perspective, a 'littoral zone' is a critically important area close to coastlines, unlike the open ocean's 'blue water' expanse. It is within this space that countries engage in coastal defence. 'Pakistan has a small economy, and we do not have blue water ambitions. We do not have the capacity to build a fleet, nor [do] we need one,' Qazi said. 'Our defence paradigm is about defending our coastlines, and for that, we have our submarines, which carry cruise missiles.' The latest conflict saw both conventional and modern warfare, including drones used to strike deep inside each other's territory. But Singh's May 30 remarks suggest a more assertive naval posture in future conflicts, say analysts. 'If Pakistan does any unholy act this time, it is possible that the opening will be done by our navy,' Singh said during his speech on May 30. Bhaskar, the Indian commodore who retired in 2007, agreed that future conflicts could see naval escalation. 'If another military conflict escalates, the probability of navies being actively involved is high,' he said. Bashir Ali Abbas, a New Delhi-based maritime affairs expert and former fellow at the Stimson Center, in Washington, DC, said that naval platforms inherently serve multiple roles. Abbas said that warships and submarines can switch from patrolling missions or exercises to operational missions on short notice. But that would carry risks of its own. 'Should the Indian Navy play a substantial role in operations against Pakistan following the next crisis, then the element of escalation control practically disappears. Any ship-on-ship, or ship-on-land engagement will imply that India and Pakistan are at war,' he told Al Jazeera, adding that the risk of inadvertent nuclear escalation is also potentially highest in the nuclear domain. Qazi, however, said that Singh's statement was ambiguous about whether the Indian Navy would engage in surveillance or aggression. Any attack on Karachi, Pakistan's economic hub, would provoke a strong response, the Lahore-based analyst said. 'I believe India will choose to play hide and seek like it did this time,' Qazi said. But he added that there was a 'high probability' that India could attack Pakistan's naval installations on land, including its planes and radar stations. And that, he said, was an 'alarming possibility'.
Al Jazeera
04-06-2025
- Al Jazeera
Who was Sana Yousaf, Pakistani TikTok star shot dead by a gunman?
Police in Pakistan's capital Islamabad have arrested a man accused of murdering a 17-year-old social media influencer, Sana Yousaf. Yousaf, who had hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram, was shot dead at her home on Monday, the latest high-profile instance of suspected femicide in Pakistan. Local media reported that Yousaf was shot dead at her home in Islamabad at about 5pm (12:00 GMT), according to a police report filed by Yousaf's mother, Farzana Yousaf, seen by Pakistani news outlet, Dawn. The report added that Yousaf was shot twice in her chest and was taken to a hospital but died of her injuries. Yousaf was a social media influencer, originally from Chitral, a city about 400km (250 miles) north of Islamabad. As of Wednesday, her TikTok account had 1.1 million followers. She often posted videos of herself lip syncing to songs. The last video posted on her account is a montage of her celebrating her birthday with her friends. On Tuesday, Yousaf was buried in her ancestral graveyard in Chitral's Chuinj village, according to Dawn. On Tuesday, Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, Islamabad's inspector general of police (IGP), told a media briefing that the police had arrested a suspect from Faisalabad, a city about 320km (200 miles) south of Islamabad, within 20 hours of the murder. 'The accused is a 22-year-old unemployed man who repeatedly attempted to contact the victim. Upon her refusal to respond, he committed the murder,' said Rizvi. He added that the suspect took Yousaf's phone with him to 'destroy evidence', but that police had seized her phone as well as the murder weapon from the suspect. Dawn reported, quoting unnamed sources close to the investigation, that the suspect and Yousaf had known each other for one year. The suspect had travelled to Islamabad between May 28 and 29 to wish Yousaf well on her birthday, but the two could not meet, for unspecified reasons. The suspect and Yousaf then spoke by phone and decided to meet on June 2. When the suspect reached Yousaf's house, she did not come out. However, he still managed to enter and an argument ensued, escalating into Yousaf's murder. Yousaf's parents were not at home when the murder took place, but her aunt was present. The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), a statutory body established to examine government policies affecting women, has demanded a detailed investigation into the crime. 'We will not let this case be buried under social stigma, false narratives of honour, or procedural loopholes. This senseless killing highlights the vulnerability of women and girls, even in their own homes. We demand justice for Sana and her family, and expect the state to ensure accountability of the perpetrators,' said NCSW chairperson Ume Laila Azhar. Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi confirmed the suspect's arrest in an X post on Tuesday. 'Police has recovered the pistol and the i phone [iPhone] of the deceased girl and accused has confessed the murder as well,' he wrote. Al Jazeera has not been able to independently confirm whether the suspect has confessed to killing Yousaf. Well Done Islamabad Police. Sana Yousaf murder case traced, accused arrested and weapon recovered within 20 hours The incident occurred yesterday in Islamabad when a young girl was murdered by a masked accused. The accused has been arrested just an hour back. Police has… — Mohsin Naqvi (@MohsinnaqviC42) June 3, 2025Aurat March, the feminist group which organises Pakistan's largest annual women's march in multiple cities – usually coinciding with International Women's Day on March 8 – posted a statement on Tuesday. 'We, the Aurat March chapters across the country, demand justice for Sana a 17-year-old girl and TikToker who tragically lost her life to patriarchal violence,' the account wrote in the caption. 'Patriarchy feels most threatened when women & gender minorities claim voice and visibility in public by challenging the stand pat norms. In response, it turns to violence the ultimate tool to silence, control, and erase. 'This is exactly what happened to Sana who was killed inside her own home by a violent man who couldn't take no for an answer. This wasn't a random hit, this was a planned attack where a minor girl's privacy and home were invaded by a man who thought he would get away with it.' This is exactly what happened to Sana who was killed inside her own home by a violent man who couldn't take no for an answer. This wasn't a random hit, this was a planned attack where a minor girl's privacy and home were invaded by a man who thought he would get away with it. — Aurat March – عورت مارچ (@AuratMarchKHI) June 3, 2025Actor Mahira Khan also posted a story on Instagram, sharing the news of Yousaf's murder. 'Disgusted to the core,' Khan wrote in the caption. In recent years, several incidents have occurred involving young women being subject to violent crimes at the hands of men they know. Many of these women also had a social media presence on platforms such as TikTok. 'Sana Yousaf's murder is part of a horrifying, ongoing pattern of violence against women in Pakistan, especially those who dare to exist with autonomy,' Nighat Dad, the executive director of a nongovernmental, research-based advocacy organisation, Digital Rights Foundation, told Al Jazeera. 'These are not isolated incidents. What connects them is a culture where women are punished for visibility, independence, and saying no. 'At the heart of this pattern is fragile masculinity and deeply rooted misogyny. When young women assert boundaries or say no to romantic or sexual advances, it bruises the male ego, especially in a society that teaches men entitlement over women's bodies and choices. This entitlement, when left unchecked by law, culture, and platforms, turns deadly,' Dad added. On January 28, a man named Anwar ul-Haq was charged with murder after he confessed to shooting his 14-year-old daughter Hira Anwar in Quetta, a city in Pakistan's southwest. The man, who had recently moved his family back to Pakistan from the US, told the police he found TikTok videos made by his daughter 'objectionable'. His daughter had been posting videos to the social platform before she had moved to Pakistan with her family. In October 2024, police in Pakistan's southern city Karachi said they had arrested a man for killing four members of his family. The four women, aged 60, 21, 20, 20 and 12 were found with slit throats in separate rooms of their apartment, according to the police. In 2022, Pakistani American woman Sania Khan was 29 when she was shot and killed by her former husband, Raheel Ahmad, in Chicago after she had posted about her divorce on her TikTok account. When the police arrived, Ahmad, 36 at the time, shot himself with the gun he used to kill Khan. Possibly the most high-profile murder case of a Pakistani woman took place in 2016, when social media star Qandeel Baloch was killed by her brother when she was 26 years old. 'Women who are visible online, particularly those who challenge social norms or exist outside the mold of respectability politics, face disproportionate abuse and threats,' Dad said. 'The backlash isn't just digital, it's physical. When platforms fail to act against hate and harassment, they enable a culture where violence becomes the consequence of women simply being seen and heard.' In all, 346 women in Pakistan were killed in 2024 in the name of 'honour', up from 324 in 2023, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). But this statistic likely does not include cases like Yousaf's, where the accused man is not from the victim's family and committed murder after his advances were rejected. In July 2021, 27-year-old Noor Mukadam was killed in Islamabad by Zahir Jaffar, whose family was known to Mukadam's. In 2022, a judge sentenced Jaffar to death for the rape, murder and beheading of Mukadam. Last week, Pakistan's Supreme Court upheld Jaffar's death penalty. 'We need systemic change. The state must treat online misogyny and gender-based violence as connected threats and not separate issues,' Dad said. 'When a woman says no, and a man responds with violence, that's not heartbreak, it's abuse.'
