Threats continue to loom for performers in northwest Pakistan as popular actress shot dead

Policemen stand guard along a street a day after a mosque suicide blast inside a police headquarters in Peshawar, Pakistan on February 1, 2023. (AFP/File)

• Pashto actress Khushboo’s body found in a field, police investigating but no arrests made
• 18 artists, most of them women, killed in the past 10 years in northwestern Pakistan region

PESHAWAR: A popular woman TV and film actress was shot dead in northwestern Pakistan this week, police and family said on Tuesday, the latest attack against female performers in a conservative region once known for Pashto language cinema.
Pollywood once thrived in Pakistan’s northwestern frontier town of Peshawar but is now confined to a handful of theaters that haven’t been attacked by militants. Actors and musicians have been targeted both by militants and family members who deem their choice of profession un-Islamic and vulgar.
According to data collected by Waqar Ali Shah, a leading Pashto poet who tracks violence against musicians, at least 18 artists – most of them women – have been killed in the past 10 years in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The latest murder took place within the jurisdiction of Nowshera, a district on the periphery of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Police officer Arishullah Khan told Arab News police received a phone call that a dead body had been dumped in the jurisdiction of the Akbar Pura Police Station in Nowshera.
“A police party was dispatched to recover the body, which was later identified as that of the actress Khushboo,” the police officer said, naming the actress who was known only by one name.
Khushboo’s brother Shehryar Khan told Arab News his sister was killed by a local “gangster and smuggler” who she had accompanied to a function on Monday. 
“However, an hour later Shaukat Khan [suspect] in a telephone call informed us to collect her dead body,” Khan said. “My sister was subjected to acute torture with her finger nails pulled out and her hands tied behind her back.”
Khan said Khusboo had been strangled and then shot dead. Police said a complaint had been against two individuals named by the family. No arrests have so far been made. 
Rashed Khan, the president of the KP Hunari Tolana, an organization that works for the welfare of artists, told Arab News frequent acts of violence were discouraging emerging artists.
“We vehemently condemned the latest killing of an artist,” he said. “We want the government to establish its writ and arrest her killers without employing any delay tactics.”
“The environment is extremely stifling for artists, musicians and singers in this region,” Shah, the poet who tracks violence against artists, said. “There is dire fear of attacks from militants and relatives among performers.”