https://arab.news/wuu57
- Sumeera Rajput, who had over 58,000 followers, was found dead at her home in Ghotki on Friday
- A post-mortem of Rajput’s body has revealed that she had died of poisoning, a police official says
KARACHI: Police have arrested two suspects for allegedly poisoning a local TikTok star to death in Pakistan’s southern Ghotki district, officials said on Saturday.
Sumeera Rajput, who had over 58,000 followers and one million likes on TikTok, was found dead at her residence in the Bago Wah area on Friday afternoon, according to Ghotki Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Muhammad Anwar Khetran.
Police arrested two suspects, Babu Rajput and Muhammad Imran, for poisoning the content creator and lodged a case against them on the complaint of the deceased’s sister.
“A post-mortem of Sameera Rajput has been conducted, which has revealed that she died because of poisoning,” Khetran said in a statement. “Further investigation is underway with the arrested suspects.”
This is the third death involving woman tiktokers in Pakistan in less than two months.
On July 11, a father shot dead his daughter in Rawalpindi after she refused to delete her account on TikTok.
In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces.
On June 2, Sana Yousaf, a 17-year-old content creator, was shot dead at her Islamabad home by another social media influencer, Umar Hayat, 22, after she rejected his repeated advances, according to Islamabad police chief Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi.
Yousuf, originally from the scenic northern region of Chitral, was known for promoting traditional Chitrali music and dress through her videos. She also advocated for girls’ education.
Hours before her murder, she had posted a photo celebrating her birthday with friends.
Women have found both audience and income on the app, which is rare in a country where fewer than a quarter of the women participate in the formal economy.
However, only 30 percent of women in Pakistan own a smartphone compared to twice as many men (58 percent), the largest gap in the world, according to the Mobile Gender Gap Report of 2025.
Pakistani telecommunications authorities have repeatedly blocked or threatened to block the app over what they call “immoral behavior.”
In southwestern Balochistan, where tribal law governs many rural areas, a man confessed to orchestrating the murder of his 14-year-old daughter earlier this year over TikTok videos that he said compromised her “honor.”