Police in Pakistan have arrested Mufti Mohammad Qavi for his alleged role in the honor killing of social media star Qandeel Baloch. Baloch’s brother strangled the 26-year-old, who had become famous for posting seductive photos on Facebook, after she called Qavi a “hypocrite” on social media and accused him of violating the Ramadan fast.
Baloch also accused Qavi of making sexual advances towards her while the two met in a hotel room for selfies in 2016, and decried him as a “blot on the name of Islam.” She had also generally criticized Islam and Pakistani culture for its repressive treatment of women.
Her accusations led to his dismissal from two powerful Islamic religious positions: the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee, which monitors the moon to declare the beginning and end of major holidays, and the more general National Ulema Mushaikh Council.
Police arrested Qavi on Wednesday, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported, as he appeared to flee out of Multan where he had appeared in court this week. The court had previously granted Qavi bail but, following reports that he had failed to continue cooperating with police, arrested him. Qavi’s bail term had also ended, and the court rejected his application for an extension.
Last week, Dawn reported that Qavi was not cooperating with the investigation, leading to the issuance of an arrest warrant. Qavi appeared in court only to secure his bail. During that appearance, he told a Dawn reporter that he was “always in his seminary” and open to talking to police.
Dawn reports Qavi will appear in court again on Thursday.
In their report on his arrest this week, Agence France-Presse cites prosecutor Ziaur Rehman as telling the news service that they government has evidence that Qavi was in contact with Baloch’s brother, Waseem, shortly before Waseem asphyxiated Baloch in their parents’ home. Waseem admitted to killing Baloch the morning after her body was found, claiming she had become too big of a shame to the family and mentioning the Qavi selfie incident as a factor in his decision to kill her.
“I am proud of what I did. I drugged her first, then I killed her,” Waseem Baloch told police immediately after his arrest. “Girls are born to stay home and follow traditions. My sister never did that.”
“I planned this after her scandal with the mufti and was waiting for the right time,” he added, noting that the incident was “the end of it.”
Baloch’s mother told reporters that she believed Qavi advised Waseem to kill her daughter following the murder in July 2016. “Qavi was embroiled in a controversy with Qandeel when she uploaded her pictures with him on her Facebook account. Qavi, who was suspended from the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee in the controversy following the [social media] posts, has also been included in the murder inquiry by the police,” the mother noted.
Baloch’s family has cooperated with the police investigation. Until a law passed after Baloch’s murder closed the loophole, police were barred from pursuing honor killing prosecutions without permission from the family, typically the killers in such a scenario.
Baloch had begun a career as a model online, posting photos of herself wearing short skirts and dresses with a low neckline—photos that garnered her the reputation of “Pakistan’s Kim Kardashian” despite their modesty compared to the American celebrity. After meeting with Qavi in a hotel room in June 2016, Baloch posted selfie photos taken with the mufti in which she can be seen wearing his hat and posing with him. She later claimed she saw him drink a cola, despite the Ramadan fast, and that he had “tried to make out with me” multiple times despite her pleas that he stop.
Following her declaration, she hosted a press conference demanding Pakistani police guarantee her safety in light of a barrage of death threats. “I will hold interior ministry responsible if anything happens to me or my family,” she asserted.
Shortly before hear death a month later, Dawn published an interview with Baloch in which she accused her family of forcing her into an abusive marriage with a man who threatened to throw acid on her, telling her, “I’ll burn your face because you’re so beautiful.”
“Nothing is good in this society,” Baloch lamented in her final interview.
Fox News reports that an estimated 1,000 women are killed by their families in “honor” killings in Pakistan each year.
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