19.5.2026
A man who cut short the life of a 17-year-old TikTok and Instagram influencer Sana Yousaf has been sentenced to death by a court in Pakistan.
Umar Hayat, 23, shot Sana Yousaf in the head in 2025 and reignited a debate about women’s safety in Pakistan.
According to the Police who arrested Hayat in Faisalabad, a city about 320km south of Islamabad, within 20 hours of the murder. Hayat murdered Sana Yousaf because she repeated rejected his advances.
“Tuesday’s verdict “is a lesson for all such criminals in society”, said Hassan Yousaf, who is the father of Sana Yousaf.
“This verdict is not just for me as an individual; it is for the entire society,” he said outside the court in Islamabad. “This is a lesson for all such criminals in society that if they commit such an act, they can get such a result,” he said.
In a recorded statement, Hayat had confessed to the crime in July, admitting to having developed a one-sided obsession with Yousaf following online interactions, a separate Dawn report said.
According to the statement, the man 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. After she refused to meet him, he grew suspicious that she was deliberately avoiding him.
The man and Yousaf then spoke by phone and decided to meet on June 2. Hayat rented a Toyota Fortuner and brought a 30-bore pistol with him.
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, which was witnessed by her mother and aunt. With Al Jazeera reports