Police accuse TikToker for chaos at int'l food chain
Rawalpindi police have arrested ten individuals for storming into an international fast-food outlet under the guise of protest and harassing families and staff inside.
The main suspect has been identified as a TikToker who, according to police, orchestrated the incident to gain online fame.
Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO), Khalid Hamdani, during a press conference with SP Potohar Talha Wali and DSP Cantt Mirza Javed Iqbal, said that the accused disrupted public peace and created fear in the Rawalpindi Cantt area on the night of April 13.
"These individuals entered the fast-food branch in the presence of women, children, and staff and caused chaos," he stated.
The police tracked down the culprits using CCTV footage and human intelligence, arresting all ten within 48 hours.
CPO Hamdani confirmed that the suspects have no affiliation with any political or other organisations. One of them is a contract employee at WAPDA, while the main suspect, identified as Kamran, is a TikTok content creator.
The arrested individuals include Kamran, Naseem, Tauseef, Khizar, Mansoor, Zaid, Asif, Azmat, Nasir, and Hamza.
CPO Hamdani emphasised that no one will be allowed to disturb peace and harass families in food courts and commercial areas.
He added that security has been increased in all such areas. "We will not tolerate such behaviour in a civilised society. Awareness seminars will be held, and legal experts are being consulted to possibly prosecute such acts under anti-terrorism laws in the future."
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Express Tribune
a day ago
- Express Tribune
The rot that killed Sana Yousaf was never hiding
They say history is a great teacher. Unless, of course, we are talking about the treatment of women in Pakistan. In that case, the lessons rarely seem to stick. It is not that we forget what happened. In fact, on May 20 when the Supreme Court upheld Zahir Jaffer's death sentence, we proudly reposted '#JusticeForNoor'. We like the same photo of Zainab Ansari that makes the rounds on social media on her death anniversary, as many still comment that her killer should have been publicly hanged. We even speak of Qandeel Baloch's name with bated breath, recounting how unfortunate it was every time we see her picture make it back to our timeline. And now, we chant for 17-year-old Sana Yousaf. We demand the harshest punishment for her killer, calling for his swift execution, insisting that he be made an example of. We post her pictures with teary captions, share videos of her smiling, and ask: how a girl so young could be taken so violently. Outrage, by now, is a choreography we have learned by heart. And we really do mean it. And still, there is always another girl. And then another. And then another. And make no mistake, there always will be. Because ours is not a history of lessons learned - it is rot that keeps returning, like a cancer that festers in any corner it can find. 'Jaisi karni, waisi bharni' Allow us to demonstrate. On June 3, just hours after it was confirmed that Sana's murder was an act of hatred by Umar Hayat for rejecting his 'friendship' proposal, social media was flooded with supportive comments. However, as the story goes, the sceptics eventually began to creep. One comment appeared. Then another. Then a third. But why was she on TikTok to begin with? Where are her parents? She must have had some involvement in this. So, what started as a clear case of rage on femicide by any definition of the word, swiftly flattened into a PR-friendly lecture on how girls should behave. Inevitably, rolling the red carpet for everyone's favorite pseudo-moralists, who, true to form, reach for their most iron-clad, tight-fisted defence: the Islam card. This ranged from throwaway one-liners about the necessity of modesty, casually dropped into comment sections, to full-blown fanatics spewing the most vile vitriol, calling for the swift 'erasure' (being generous here) of all such women, because they are the ones spreading 'fahaashi', leading society astray and betraying the word of God. Ironically, they consistently fail to acknowledge what Islam actually teaches: that there is no compulsion in religion, that justice is sacred, and that the burden of wrongdoing lies not on the victim, but the oppressor. But nuance, of course, rarely trends. Neither does picking a side, because celebrities with mammothian platforms, sweeped in at just the right time to provide half-baked statements of condemnation while simultaneously preaching the dangers of social media, the importance of privacy, and how young girls should be careful. Only a few and far between had the courage to call a spade a spade: a man felt entitled to a girl's life and he took it. It is not just the social media echo chamber that is pushing this narrative, too. Just last week, Justice Ali Baqir Najafi stood in the Supreme Court, following Jaffer's sentencing and described Noor's case as a warning against live-in relationships. Unfortunate and disgusting sure, but a cautionary tale, nevertheless. And so, the case of a woman who was tortured, killed, and beheaded became, somehow, a parable about lifestyle choices inviting danger. And the cancer does not stop at the courtroom. We saw this unfold in real time with the Dua Zehra case, where large media outlets and mainstream journalists after expressing their concerns, speculated on her character, questioned her sanity, painted her as rebellious, and amplified every salacious detail they could find. Our silent complicity Perhaps the most devastating betrayal comes when these words are repeated by our own. At the dinner table, the cancer lives in our mothers, who mourn the news as it plays on the television and then reinforce this is why girls should stay home. It grows in our grandmothers, who agree with them, sighing 'in my day girls stayed quiet.' It breathes in our cousin commenting, 'this happens when girls don't stay within their limits'. It thrives in phrases like, 'apni izzat apne haath' (you are the guardian of your own honour). Undeniably, while there is some truth to the notion that we have a degree of control over the respect we receive from those around us, more often than not, this phrase is used in a deceptive way to teach young girls something far more insidious. It becomes a subtle, almost palatable way of implying: 'What happened to you is sad but if you hadn't done this or that, you wouldn't have invited this trouble; maybe you could have saved yourself.' So the point we arrive at is this: despite what we like to tell ourselves, these are not bad apples, or an 'uneducated' few. This is the symptom of a society suspended in a coma, where shock is expected, but action is absent. Each time a woman's name becomes a headline, we jolt awake, shaken by our anger; we post tributes, we write captions, until slowly slipping back into a familiar sleep. The truth is, we live in a state of denial, of the unique willful kind, where we have learned to perform our grief. Public mourning has become our substitute for justice and expressions of solidarity have become our excuse to avoid confronting the systems and this has allowed this violence to happen again and again. Perhaps, at this point, this has paralysingly become our only choice. But at the very least, let us not pretend to be surprised. Let us not mourn Sana as if her death was unprecedented or unthinkable. The cancer that led us here is not new and it is not hiding. It has baked into our institutions, families, conversations and media. And it is now convincing us that our grief is enough. Which, for the record, it never was, and it never will be. Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.
Business Recorder
2 days ago
- Business Recorder
A society in moral freefall
EDITORIAL: Another day in Pakistan: another young woman silenced by the brutal hands of male violence. The tragedy that befell 17-year-old TikTok star Sana Yousaf in Islamabad on June 2 is a harrowing reminder of how women's lives remain expendable in a society that refuses to confront its deep-rooted misogyny or dismantle the structures that allow such violence to thrive. According to details provided by Islamabad police, a 22-year-old man from Faisalabad, Umar Hayat, was arrested within hours of the murder coming to light through the help of CCTV footage from the vicinity of the victim's home and geo-fencing technology that helped trace his location. The Islamabad police chief tied the killing to the suspect persistently attempting to befriend Yousaf over several months, advances she repeatedly rejected. The alleged culprit's violent reaction to rejection exposes a warped mindset: one that fails to grasp the concepts of consent and female agency, and views women's autonomy as an affront. It reflects a society where too many men are raised to see dominance as their birthright and 'no' as a challenge to be crushed. This begs the question: how many more lives must be lost before Pakistani society finally breaks this cycle of entitlement that turns male fragility into female fatalities? As reprehensible as Yousaf's murder was, its aftermath revealed an even deeper societal sickness. Social media became a cesspool of victim-blaming, with young men justifying, and even celebrating the killing, twisting the victim's social media presence into some perverse justification for her violent end. It was a grotesque display of how violence against women has been normalised, where any female defying patriarchal boundaries is seen as 'asking for it'. That such depraved rhetoric flows so freely exposes how profoundly broken our moral compass is, with yet another generation of boys being radicalised into viewing women's lives as disposable. While the police did well to apprehend the alleged culprit in quick time, this moment demands more than just efficient policing. It requires the authorities to apply the country's cybercrime statutes — which they were so eager to foist upon the public — against their most legitimate targets: the digital lynch mobs treating a 17-year-old child's murder as cause for celebration. If cybercrime regulations can be deployed so fervently to silence political dissent, surely they can be used to prosecute those cheering and inciting violence against women. The fact is that true societal change — the dismantling of toxic patriarchal norms — will take years of education and awareness. But we cannot wait for that distant evolution while women's lives hang in the balance. The law must act now to punish not just physical violence, but also the online hate that fuels it. Let these tools, so often misused, finally serve what their true purpose should have always been, i.e., protecting the vulnerable. Recent days have revealed a damning portrait of our decay: child marriage bans spark protests, while dead women are posthumously tried for their own murders. Real change will require a dual reckoning — swift justice for both perpetrators of violence against women and their online enablers, along with an educational overhaul to reshape how young boys perceive women's autonomy so that this rot is rooted out before it takes hold in another generation. The alternative is tacitly endorsing the next murder of a girl who simply tried living on her own terms. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Express Tribune
2 days ago
- Express Tribune
'We will not forget you'
It has happened again. There are no words that can fully convey the raw horror of the senseless murder of 17-year-old influencer Sana Yousaf. On Monday evening, a girl on the brink of adulthood embracing the promise of all the milestones her eighteenth year would bring, was gunned down in her home on what should have been a birthday celebration. Why? As revealed by video press conferences from investigating officers, the shocking – but paradoxically unsurprising – answer is rooted in rejection. Sana's fresh-faced youthful perkiness lit up the screens of her over a million followers across both TikTok and Instagram combined. Along the way, this young influencer crossed paths with a man she had no interest in meeting. Ill equipped to deal with a 'no', that man broke into Sana's home on her 17th birthday. We all know what happened next. Mahira, Sajal take to IG Vocal showbiz A-listers with a keen finger on the pulse for justice rose united in horror across Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) to condemn this latest instance of gender-based violence – made all the more horrific by Sana's age and the cruel irony of her murder coinciding with her birthday. Mahira Khan, taking a horrified pause from promoting her upcoming Eidul Azha film Love Guru, wrote on Instagram Stories, "Can't get myself to stop thinking about Sana Yousaf. A 17-year-old beautiful girl. She had just blown out candles, made wishes, maybe danced a little. And then in seconds gone. Shot dead. Over a bloody 'No'." Digging to the rotten core of a society where a feminine rejection can lead to murder, the Maula Jatt star continued, "But is it really about one moment? One second? One word? It's not. It's the system. The way we've raised men to believe they are owed something – attention, affection, obedience. The way we fail, again and again, to protect the girls who dare to have a voice, a choice." As with any incidence of female murder, misogynist comments across Facebook under the news of Sana's murder ranged from "Yes, every female TikTokker deserves this" to "These TikTokkers advertising their stupidity make people leave Islam." With such fuel for the fire, Mahira was far from the only Pakistani star making public her disgust and despair over Sana's tragic murder as fellow actor Sajal Ali also turned to IG Stories to register her horror. "A girl lost her life simply for saying no. What kind of world are we living in?" wrote the Dil Wali Gali Mein star under the banner of the haunting hashtag #JusticeForSanaYousaf. "The lack of empathy is terrifying. I just hope that we, as a society, learn to truly feel for others. To respect boundaries. To value life. May we grow in empathy, in understanding, and in basic humanity. #JusticeForSanaYousaf." Mawra, Maya join in An equally enraged Mawra Hocane pointed to the devastating frequency with which women in Pakistan fall afoul of men they no longer wish to liaise with – and the justification offered up by social media users hinting that they asked for it. "Another story we will forget in a few days, when a new story takes over — we've failed as a society, as humans. I see no return from this point," lamented the Jafaa star. "I hear victim blaming. I hear how a woman should've behaved to evade this. It's all of us. We've contributed to men not being able to hear a NO!" Pointing fingers at an entertainment industry that perpetuates problematic societal norms, Mawra added, "Our content still romanticses forced relationships, toxic love, dominating male behaviours. Well, this is the impact. A 17-year-old was killed because a boy thought it would be okay to do so when rejected. I hope and pray that the authorities make an example out of the perpetrator." Similarly, Sunn Mere Dil actor Maya Ali, also taking to IG Stories, wrote that although she had never known Sana's family, she, too, shared in the vicarious grief felt by every woman who knows that it could have been them. "I don't care about the reason. I don't want explanations. I want justice," penned Maya. "I want the people who did this to be arrested or hanged. No mercy. No more waiting." Questioning why women must always be the gatekeepers of upholding a cultural facade, the actor continued, "Why is it always a girl or a woman who has to pay the price for so-called 'honour'? It's heartbreaking. It's unbearable. And it must stop. I strongly urge the higher authorities to take strict and immediate action against this cruel and inhuman act." Male celebs speak up Whilst the majority of celebrities who voiced their dissent on social media were predictably women, two male stars stood out. Maya's close friend and fellow actor Osman Khalid Butt voiced a similar sentiment to the former about authorities taking action. "Umar Hayat must be prosecuted without delay. No loopholes, no leniency. All eyes on our law enforcement. All eyes on the courts," posted Osman on X alongside the hashtag #JusticeForSanaYousaf. Chahat actor Imran Abbas was also amongst the first to raise his voice against the shocking incident. On Tuesday, Imran posted a widely circulated image of a beaming Sana, writing, "I'm deeply saddened by the tragic news of the 17-year-old girl's murder. The government needs to take immediate action against these horrific crimes, particularly those committed against girls under the guise of personal vendetta, honour or other pretexts. This is the fifth one in [the] last few months." Anoushey spotlights trend Perhaps the most outraged reaction came from recently married former VJ Anoushey Ashraf, whose heartfelt video and accompanying harrowing caption said it all and could also be found reposted in the IG Stories of Kabhi Main Kabhi Tum star Hania Aamir and Aiman Khan. "Another young woman silenced. Another life stolen for being seen," began Anoushey in her caption. "The murder of 17-year-old Sana Yousaf — vibrant, confident, full of promise shatters the illusion that women in Pakistan can exist freely, even in the digital world. She was a teenager creating joy for millions. To mourn her is not enough. We need to rage, to speak, to keep pushing for a world where women don't have to fear simply being. Sana, you deserved so much better. We will not forget you." To illustrate the rhetorical point that this is by no means an isolated incident, Anoushey turned the spotlight on her followers and asked women to speak up about the times they have felt unsafe, promising anonymity in return. Floored by the "countless" stories she received, the VJ posted a screenshot of at least 30 she had received, all depicting in grim detail how they had been harassed or assaulted by either strangers or men in their families. Coming on the heels of the upheld guilty verdict of the horrific Noor Makaddam case last month (nearly four years after the fact), Sana's murder is no isolated case of gender based violence. And as Anoushey's simple Instagram exercise highlights yet again, although we may be in 2025, it will be far from the last.
