A man allegedly shot dead his sister and niece following a dispute involving TikTok videos in Swabi district on Tuesday. Police identified the suspect as Taj Bahadur and said he fled after the shooting.
The attack took place inside a house in Leran, in the mountainous Gadoon area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on September 29. Both women died at the scene, according to the First Information Report (FIR).
Police registered the case at Utla Police Station on the complaint of Majida, wife of Yar Ali Khan. She accused Bahadur of entering the house and opening fire on his sister, the wife of Siyar Khan, and his niece.
Complaint describes attack inside family home
Majida told police that her husband and brother-in-law worked abroad. She shared the house with her sister-in-law and other family members.
Further reporting, citing the police complaint, identified the younger victim as Siyar Khan’s 19-year-old daughter. It said family members were at home on Tuesday afternoon when Bahadur arrived carrying a weapon.
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The complainant alleged that he opened fire on the mother and daughter. Other members of the household escaped the shooting unharmed, according to the additional account.
The available reports did not give either victim’s name. They identified the older woman through her husband and the younger woman as her daughter.
Dispute reportedly concerned nephew’s videos
The complaint linked the attack to Bahadur’s anger over his nephew Salman, son of Siyar Khan, making TikTok videos.
According to the additional reporting, Bahadur had asked his sister to tell her son to stop making the videos. This account places the nephew’s activity at the centre of the reported dispute, rather than videos made by either victim.
The initial report described the motive more broadly as a disagreement involving a TikTok video. It did not provide details about the recording or its contents.
Police said they had begun an investigation and were searching for the suspect after registering the case. The reports reviewed did not announce an arrest or provide a response from Bahadur.
The allegations about the shooting and its motive come from the complaint and police accounts cited in the reporting.
Violence against women remains a concern
The killings come against a wider backdrop of violence against women in Pakistan, including within family homes.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan documented persistent gender-based violence in its review of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for 2024. Its findings included hundreds of cases involving domestic abuse, sexual assault and killings committed in the name of honour.
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Nationally, the commission recorded at least 405 honour killings and 1,641 domestic murders during 2024.
Those figures provide background on violence against women. The available police account of the Swabi shooting linked it to a TikTok dispute without explicitly classifying it as an honour killing.
