A 28-year-old Pakistani TikTok creator with more than 1.3 million followers was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle in Taxila, near Islamabad, on August 14, allegedly after she had received death threats over a financial dispute.
Shamso Bibi, known online as Ayesha Gilamana, was killed on Pakistan’s Independence Day. Her brother, Niamatullah, has appealed to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif to intervene in the case.
Police have arrested at least four suspects, including two men accused of helping the alleged gunman escape, ARY News reported on Monday.
According to a complaint filed by Bibi’s father, Fazal Sahibzada, his daughter received a call from a man identified as Kashif, who asked her to come outside her home in Taxila.
Bibi then left with her sister and brother in a car. As they approached a market, two men riding a motorcycle intercepted the vehicle and opened fire.
Police said a bullet struck Bibi in the neck. She died from her injuries.
A CCTV video circulating online appears to show two men on a motorcycle stopping the car before one of them pulls out a pistol and fires at close range.
The shooting caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle, which crashed into a dumper truck. Bibi’s sister was seriously injured in the crash.
In his complaint, Sahibzada said his daughter had been making TikTok videos for around three to four years and had built a substantial following.
“My daughter Shamso Bibi used to make TikTok [videos] and had been doing so for nearly three to four years,” Mr Sahibzada said in the complaint, Arab News reported. “It had over 30-35 million likes and over one million followers,” he said.
The family has since deleted Bibi’s TikTok account. Her YouTube page also appears to have disappeared.
Sahibzada alleged that Bibi had been receiving threats from two men over demands for repayment of money. He said he had a “strong reason to believe” that one of the two could be responsible for her murder.
There have been growing concerns over attacks on young women who have built large audiences on social media in Pakistan.
TikTok has a huge user base in the country. DataReportal’s Digital 2026: Pakistan report, citing TikTok’s advertising data, estimated that the platform had 79.9 million users aged 18 and above in Pakistan as of late 2025.
Several female TikTok creators have been killed in recent cases.
