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Gunfire Slays Popular Pakistani Singer
Javed and her father were driving home from the beauty salon when a motorcycle sped up to their car.
“Two men on a motorbike sprayed bullets and fled leaving them in a pool of blood,” said senior police officer Dilawar Bangash, according to the U.K.’s Telegraph.
Javed was pronounced dead at a hospital in Peshawar, according to hospital official Rahim Afridi, and reported by CNN, who notes that she recorded songs in her native Pashto and was a “household name among young, progressive ethnic Pashtuns in northwest Pakistan.” She was hit with six bullets. Her father also died. The Times Of India reports that the popular singer’s younger sister, Farhat Bibi, escaped unhurt.
Peshawar is the capital of Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Although the Times of India points out that several singers and musicians have recently been “gunned down” by the local Taliban in the province because of claims that their music is “un-Islamic,” CNN reports that based on early indications, the police don’t think the Taliban was involved.
Instead, authorities are looking at the singer’s ex-husband as a suspect.
The police released a statement after the shooting saying that Javed’s sister was pointing a finger at Javed’s ex-husband and two of his acquaintances, according to CNN. A search is underway for the three men.
Javed’s request for a divorce last year was a big deal in the conservative, male-dominated society. CNN points out that divorce can be seen as a “dishonor to the husband.”
According to the Telegraph, Javed’s family said she requested the split because she “was unhappy at discovering he had another wife and by his attempts to stop her singing.” Last year she began living with her father, according to the Times of India.
Click here for the full report from CNN, here for the Times of India’s story, and here for the Telegraph’s report.