A few days ago, the atmosphere in a village in Jaranwala suddenly turned mournful when the news of the death of Fatima, who had just arrived there, spread two days after her wedding.
According to the initial report of the incident, Fatima had picked up a pistol and placed it on her head to make a TikTok video when a bullet accidentally went off, causing her death.
The tendency to risk one’s life or self-harm while making a TikTok video is criticized worldwide. However, the police claim that the nature of the incident that took place in Faisalabad district is somewhat different and this incident is not as simple as described by the family. Ishtiaq Ahmed, the uncle of 22-year-old Fatima Abbas, told the BBC, “Doomsday has broken out in our house.” We sent the girl off two days ago and her funeral was held two days later.’
He further said that ‘When this incident happened, the victim, her mother, sister and children were in the same room. She took out a pistol from the drawer and started making a video and suddenly a shot went off.’On the question of where the pistol came from, Fatima’s uncle said that ‘it belonged to her husband’s friend, he brought it to shoot in the air at the wedding.’
Ishtiaq Ahmed blamed the social media app TikTok for Fatima’s death. He said that ‘Tik Tok is such a bad thing and our children don’t listen to it at all and then the parents suffer.’
On the question of whether Fatima’s family had ever stopped her from making TikTok, his answer was ‘Yes, we stopped her many times but then she used to secretly make videos. You know where children nowadays listen and believe anyone.
However, Ishtiaq Ahmed was unable to provide information about Fatima’s TikTok account. He said, “I don’t use mobile much, so I don’t know her TikTok account.” When I contacted Faisalabad police to get information on this matter, initially they said, “We have registered a report of the incident on the complaint of the father because the girl’s family and in-laws have the same statement, but we are still investigating the incident.”
However, a day later, when CPO Faisalabad Kamran Adil was talked about, his position was much different from the initial information. The CPO said, “This is not a case of suicide. In this incident, the bullet did not come from the victim, but she was hit by a bullet fired by her ten-year-old nephew.
He claimed that “This is a case of its kind in which there was no heir and we have solved this case out of public concern. The parents, husband, and in-laws of the victim Fatima all painted Fatima’s murder as a suicide and blamed Fatima and TikTok.”
Kamran Adil also said that the role of the police is very important in such cases where there is no one to follow up and if evidence and investigation are timely and directed in the right direction, it becomes easier to reach the real accused.