A stalker has been sentenced to death for the “gruesome and cold-blooded murder” of a 17-year-old TikTok star who repeatedly rejected his creepy advances.
Umar Hayat, 22, learned his fate on Tuesday after he broke into Sana Yousaf’s home in Pakistan in June last year and gunned her down in front of her distraught relatives — just days after her birthday.
The brazen killer then stole the social media star’s phone and fled. He was arrested around 20 hours later in Faisalabad, about 200 miles from the murder in Islamabad.
The slain influencer — who boasted millions of followers on social media where she shared clips about women’s rights, food, fashion and skincare — had repeatedly turned Hayat down before the horror attack, authorities said.
“It was a case of repeated rejections. The boy was trying to reach out to her time and again,” Islamabad’s inspector general of police, Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, said at the time.
“It was a gruesome and cold-blooded murder.”
Yousaf’s murder sparked a wave of condemnation across the country and kickstarted a furious debate over women’s safety.
The teen rose to social media stardom by speaking out for women’s rights in Pakistan.
After her death, Yousaf’s TikTok following quickly swelled by hundreds of thousands of followers.
Speaking after the verdict, Yousaf’s family said justice had now been served.
“This verdict is not just for me as an individual; it is for the entire society,” her father, Hassan Yousaf, said outside the courthouse.
“This is a lesson for all such criminals in society that if they commit such an act, they can get such a result.”
