Pakistan social media sensation Qandeel Baloch has been killed, police said on Saturday, in the latest incident of so-called "honour" killing in the country.
"She was strangulated to death. It is apparently a case of honour killing committed by her brother," senior police officer Azhar Akram said.
The brother arrived Friday at their parents house where Baloch also lived, in the central district of Multan, from a neighbouring town, and disappeared after the murder that night, Akram said.
He was being sought by police.
Baloch, who was in mid-twenties, was known for her provocative social media presence and TV appearances.
Her candid videos and commentary on her personal life, including shots at the gym or swimming, were modest by Western standards, but stirred controversy in conservative, Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Last month she prompted a public outcry when she posted videos of a meeting with a cleric, Mufti Qavi, and claimed that she shared soft drinks and cigarette with him during the day in the holy month of fasting.
Qavi in several interviews rejected the allegations and said he only discussed religious matters with her.
She was as popular as she was polarising, with her Facebook page garnering more than 725,000 likes. Her videos are watched millions of times.
She offered to do a striptease if Pakistan won a cricket world competition, and has been compared to the US reality star Kim Kardashian.
She had come under pressure and threats from the public and her family to quit social media because of the perceived dishonourable behaviour.
She had recently asked for the authorities to provide protection for her, but did not receive it.
"I admit it, I have unduly used the freedom my parents gave me," she said in an interview with the BBC published this month. "But it's too late to go back. I am beyond their control."
Every year hundreds of women are killed in Pakistan for choosing partners against their family's wishes or otherwise bringing "dishonour" on their household by defying their parents' authority, rights groups say.
