Her father took her on a trip to Pakistan. Police say it was a trap

When Hira Anwar's father dropped her off every morning at middle school, she would duck out of his car and scamper up the steps of Public School 16 in Yonkers, New York, the Westchester County town where she grew up.

Inside, Hira would greet her principal and catch up with her classmates, sharing tracks by her favorite band, Chase Atlantic, or TikTok videos of singer Zayn Malik, whom everyone knew she had a particular crush on because he was of Pakistani descent, as she was.

Then, a few months ago, something changed: When her father's car was out of sight of the school, Hira, 14, would remove her hijab. Hira's principal took notice, and, concerned that she was being bullied to conform, she pulled Hira aside to check in.

Hira said it was the opposite, according to her principal: She finally felt free to express herself.

That freedom did not last long.

In late January, while on a vacation with her father to his hometown, Quetta, Pakistan, Hira was shot to death in front of her father's family home. Shortly after, her father, Anwar ul-Haq Rajpoot, tearfully told police that a random attack had taken his daughter's life. But Pakistani police now say that the shooting, and in fact the entire trip, was a trap that he orchestrated.

In a chilling confession, Rajpoot told investigators he ordered Hira's execution because her behavior was an embarrassment. Rajpoot had his daughter killed, he told police, because "Hira's clothing choices, lifestyle and social relationships" had brought her family shame.

In Yonkers, her school, her friends and her family are reeling, unable to process the death of an eighth grader whose sass impressed her teachers and whose staunch character made her a go-to referee among her girlfriends.

"It is hard for us to even understand mentally that this actually happened," the eldest of her two sisters, Heba Anwar, 22, said before declining to comment further. "We were living a very happy nice life."

A Future Lawyer

Hira lived with her parents on the ground floor of a pink brick split-level home in a semisuburban housing development in Yonkers, a working-class area where neighbors spoke Bengali, Urdu and Spanish. Her mother, Sumara Anwar, was also originally from Pakistan, and was not out of place in the neighborhood wearing a niqab that exposed only her eyes. Her father had worked as an Uber driver.

Hira and her sisters, like many children of immigrants, often served as interpreters for their parents. A local real estate agent, Albina Durgaj, said that when the family bought an apartment to rent out, their daughters translated the entire transaction. She recalled Rajpoot and his wife as warm. Until this year, they had never failed to send her holiday greetings at Christmas.

Hira had just started at School 16, but only a few days into the fall semester she already had a gaggle of admiring girlfriends, her principal, Vanessa Vasquez, said in an interview. She was a dedicated student who sometimes seemed like a little adult, Vasquez recalled: After an "aha" moment in science, her favorite subject, Hira turned to her teacher and complimented her teaching style.

For most of her childhood, Hira and her sisters attended religion classes on the weekends at the Andalusia Islamic Center not far from their home, according to Rashid Jamshaid, a member of the board. Lately, she had spent her weekends at the Cross County Center mall with her friends, shopping for the boxy tops and baggy jeans favored by pop star Billie Eilish, one of her idols.

Though Hira was new to School 16, she had no problem standing up to authority or other students when she felt she was being treated unfairly. She was usually the appointed leader of her friend group to, say, argue their case against a demerit for being late to class. Her teachers thought she would grow up to be a politician or a lawyer, Vasquez said, adding, "She had that personality of not being afraid to speak up."

In the schoolyard, Hira used that spark to challenge bullies who picked on her friends, said her close friend, Layla Blanca. "She had so much courage to be a good friend," Layla said. Shortly after the school year began, Layla recalled, Hira slipped off her hijab in class to reveal cute blond streaks she had dyed into her dark hair.

There are 16 languages spoken by students at School 16, which sets aside special prayer rooms for students during Ramadan. "I think she got more comfortable in herself, and I think she wanted to maybe show what she really is," Layla said. "She respects her culture, but as a teenage girl in middle school, I think she wanted to be like other girls."

It was around that point when Vasquez called Hira aside to make sure she wasn't being bullied into removing her head covering. Hira told her not to worry. "This was her choice," the principal said.

A 'Vacation'

Just before winter break, Hira's parents unenrolled her from School 16, according to Akeem H. Jamal, a spokesperson for Yonkers Public Schools. Jamal declined to comment on whether any reason was given, citing student privacy rules. For a student to be legally withdrawn from a school, her guardian must show proof that she is registered elsewhere. Hira was newly enrolled in a school in Pakistan, according to someone with direct knowledge of the situation who was not permitted to speak publicly about it.

But her friend Layla said Hira never mentioned that she was moving abroad or that she was aware she was enrolled in a Pakistani school. According to Layla, all that Hira knew was that she and her father were going on a trip.

On Jan. 15, Hira and her father arrived in Pakistan. She told her friends it was a vacation, and indeed, the two spent a week sightseeing in Lahore, according to Pakistani police. On Jan. 20, Hira posted pictures on Instagram of soldiers marching in the pomp-filled daily military ceremony at the Wagah-Attari crossing at the border with India. Later that day, she shared photos she appeared to have taken at a market: glittering souvenirs, jewelry and embroidered bridal gowns.

The pair arrived in Quetta, in the province of Balochistan, near the Afghan border, on Jan. 22. The region, in the southwest of Pakistan, is in the throes of a violent separatist insurgency, and in recent months killings between insurgent groups have escalated. Hira and her father were staying in a house with a bright blue door on Balochi Street that Rajpoot owned with several family members, near the city center.

On Jan. 26, Hira sent a message to Layla back in Yonkers, a video clip of Malik. Layla sent her love.

Hira didn't text back.

A Funeral Without Grief

The next evening around 11 o'clock, Hira was headed out with her father to visit Muhammad Tayyab, one of her mother's brothers, her father later told police.

In Hira's father's telling, he happened to duck inside moments before she was gunned down in front of the blue door on Balochi Street. "I realized I had forgotten my phone, so I went back inside to retrieve it. Suddenly, I heard gunshots and Hira crying, 'Father, father,'" Rajpoot wrote in Urdu in a statement to the Quetta Police. "When I rushed outside, I found her lying injured at the doorstep. The attacker had already fled. With the help of neighbors, I took her to the hospital, but she later succumbed to her injuries."

Neighbors ran out into the dark street, just as a motorcycle roared away. They found Hira on the ground, hit by two bullets: one in her chest, one her arm.

"I rushed outside and saw Hira lying injured at the doorstep," one of the neighbors who found her, Abdul Manan, 16, said in an interview. "Her father was there, crying." Abdul said that Hira's father told friends, neighbors and police officers that he believed Hira was an innocent bystander killed by robbers or insurgents. "They said 'unidentified assailants' had opened fire on her," Abdul recalled.

But things didn't seem to add up, according to Capt. Zuhaib Muhsin, the head of investigations for the Quetta Police. "From the beginning, we suspected the killing was linked to the family," Muhsin said.

To start, it was only after he buried his daughter Jan. 28 that Rajpoot filed an official police report. And in it, he wrote that he had brought her to Pakistan to visit her ancestral homeland for the very first time -- but Hira's social media posts appeared to show she had visited previously over the summer.

It was her funeral that set off alarms for investigators. Pakistani funerals are typically days-long affairs full of prayer and collective grief expressed out loud, where no death is as wrenching as that of a child. The ritual is so important that burials are often put on hold until far-flung family can gather.

Hira was buried at noon the day after she died, while her mother and sisters were still in New York. At the grave site, mourners were taken aback when her father announced that Hira would receive a single day of prayer, rather than the customary three days, said Zafar Ali, a longtime family friend who was there.

Some police officers had joined to pay their respects and were troubled by what they saw. To one officer, who asked that his name not be used because he is not permitted to speak to reporters, it seemed that Rajpoot was in a hurry to bury his daughter. But what most raised his suspicions, he said, is that at her graveside, no one seemed to be grieving.

Police now say Rajpoot ordered his daughter's death and that the gunman was Tayyab, the uncle that Hira was told they were going to see. The two men were arrested Jan. 29. After hours of questioning, Muhsin said, each confessed to the crime.

On March 3, Rajpoot and his brother-in-law appeared handcuffed in court in Quetta. They were permitted a few moments to meet with a group of family members at the hearing where documents were submitted and the case adjourned to a later date. Rajpoot's wife and other daughters did not appear to be present.

Naveed Qambrani, a lawyer for both men, said his clients insist they are innocent and believe they are being framed for a crime they did not commit. "Rajpoot insists that the accusation is driven by an ulterior motive to frame him in the case," Qambrani said. "Ultimately, it is up to the court."

The Last Text

So-called honor killings are murders of women who supposedly brought shame to their families for such actions as refusing a marriage or behaving in ways deemed immodest and contrary to hard-line Islamic codes of female conduct. They are an ancient problem that has evolved in the era of social media. Hira's death is part of a pattern of violence targeting women that is deeply ingrained in Pakistan and within some parts of the diaspora, experts said. There were 588 such killings in Pakistan in 2024, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent watchdog group, a more than 20% increase from 2023.

"Cases like this shake us to the core," Muhsin said. "This tragedy is a reminder that we, as a society, must work harder to challenge outdated and oppressive attitudes that lead to such violence."

He added, "This is not just a crime against one girl -- it is an attack on the basic rights and freedoms of all individuals."

That Rajpoot could be behind the killing of his own daughter stunned people who knew him. From the outside, he seemed not especially religious and content to raise three American daughters.

Originally from Quetta, where his family ran a business renting out tents, chairs and tables for parties, Rajpoot was the envy of his friends when he won the US green card lottery in his 20s, several said. Today he is a dual Pakistani and US citizen, and the Rajpoots have called Yonkers home for decades. His daughters seemed to have been given opportunities to excel. Information online shows Hira was a contestant in a fifth grade spelling bee; her older sister, Heba, studied nursing at the University of Mount Saint Vincent, according to her LinkedIn.

But there were bumps on the way. In 2014, Rajpoot filed for bankruptcy with just $4,400 to his name, according to court filings that list him as a cabdriver. A spokesperson for Uber confirmed Rajpoot had been a driver, but not for several years.

The family had rented the pink split-level since Hira was an infant, but by 2022, things had turned around enough for them to purchase a four-bedroom home not far away, which they rent out for income.

Among the close-knit Muslim community of Yonkers, Rajpoot was not known to be devout, according to Shabbir Gul, a community activist who also belongs to the Andalusia mosque; for years, he recalled, he saw him only infrequently at Friday prayers, dressed in jeans and with a clean-shaven face. But about two years ago, Rajpoot grew a beard and began showing up more regularly, sometimes in traditional Pakistani dress.

"Nobody knows what happened, how come this guy suddenly did this," Gul said. "Islam says that kids have freedom," he added. "They can go pray, they can play, they can have their own life."

After the killing, Rajpoot had planned to flee back to the United States, according to Muhsin. Instead, he and Tayyab are still in jail in Quetta. From their interrogations, police were led to a motorcycle they say was the getaway vehicle and a pistol registered in Tayyab's name at his home; police now say it is the murder weapon.

Back in Yonkers, the eighth graders at School 16 are planning a memorial for Hira. In the spring, they will plant a tree in her honor, the principal said, and the students are putting together a collage of snapshots of her. She had made so many friends in just a few months that it seems like almost everyone has a photo of Hira on their phone.

"She is being the glue right now that is keeping our school community together," Vasquez said.

The day she found out her friend had been killed, Layla could not go into the school where they had met, had giggled, had gossiped. She spent the day unable to get up from her bed, looking through old messages from Hira. The last one came in Jan. 26 at 5:10 a.m., Yonkers time -- 3:10 in the afternoon in Pakistan. In it, Malik is onstage at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. He pulls a microphone close and sings in Urdu, "I love you."