A Pakistani celebrity who shot to fame on the back of racy Facebook videos has allegedly been killed by her brother in an apparent “honour” killing.

A police official in Multan said Qandeel Baloch, 26, had been strangled by her brother Waseem, who then fled the scene. The model and singer, whose real name is Fouzia Azeem, had been in the city visiting her parents.

Her brother had allegedly told her to end her social media activity, which had won her legions of fans, although left many dismayed. Baloch shot to national attention in March when she released a video promising to perform a “striptease” if the Pakistani cricket team won the World Twenty20 cricket championships.

Although Pakistan did not win, she still danced on camera, saying the performance was in honour of the victorious Indian team. She was unapologetic about upsetting conservatives in the Muslim-majority state where radical forms of Islam have grown in popularity in recent years.

She recently described herself as an “inspiration to ladies who are treated badly”.

Last month, Baloch was embroiled in another controversy when a leading cleric was suspended from his role in an official “moon-sighting” committee following his appearance with the model in selfies she posted online.

The pictures showed Baloch wearing Mufti Abdul Qavi’s traditional lamb’s wool cap as she posed next to the cleric. Qavi later said Baloch had asked him for a meeting and they met in a hotel. A video of the encounter showed Qavi promising to advise her on religious matters while she tried to sit on his lap.

She had recently demanded that the government provide her with security after receiving death threats, but no help was given. She told the media she was considering moving abroad with her parents as she did not feel safe.

In one of her last interviews, she talked about being forced to get married against her will at the age of 17 to an uneducated man, whom she described as “an animal”. “I said: ‘No, I don’t want to spend my life this way’. I was not made for this. It was my wish since I was a child to become something, to be able to stand on my own two feet, to do something for myself.”

The killing of women by relatives who feel their family has been dishonoured is a widespread problem in the country. The Pakistan Human Rights Commission estimates that more than 3,000 women were killed in “honour” cases between 2008 and 2014. The Aurat Foundation, another rights group, put the figure even higher, claiming that around 1,000 women a year were killed.

Most cases are not reported to the police and do not receive national publicity.

Perpetrators often make use of elements of Islamic law on Pakistan’s statute books to avoid punishment.

If relatives of the victim agree to forgive the killers, often in return for a “blood money” payment, then all charges are dropped.

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a film-maker who won an Oscar this year for a documentary on “honour” killing, said she was frustrated that the government had failed to fulfil a pledge by Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to change the law.

“Honour killings are happening every single day in small towns, villages and cities but people are getting off scot-free,” she said. “The only way we will start making a difference is if we start sending people to jail and making examples of them.”

Obaid-Chinoy’s film, A Girl in the River, tells the story of a woman who survived a murder attempt by her family after she married without their consent. Although the film was critically acclaimed, some audiences in Pakistan have cheered the father’s attempt to avenge the supposed shame brought on them by their daughter.

Commenting on Baloch’s killing, Obaid-Chinoy said she was especially shocked by the murder of a self-confident woman who had used her earnings to support her parents. “She stood on her own two feet and was not afraid of speaking her mind,” she said. “Whether or not you agree with her, no one has the right to kill her.”