Murder Case Registered Over Anchor Rabia Ahsan’s Killing in Rawalpindi; Husband Named
College Road, Rawalpindi (file photo)
RAWALPINDI: A murder case has been registered over the killing of 92 News anchor and programme host Rabia Ahsan, who was found shot dead at her home in the city on Sunday. The FIR, lodged at Saddar Beruni police station on the complaint of her brother Khurram Ahmed, names her husband Ahsan Tahir as the suspect.
The 41-year-old was found in the bedroom of her house in Gulshanabad, on Adiala Road, with a gunshot wound below her neck. She had previously co-hosted a current affairs show alongside senior journalists Amir Mateen and Rauf Klasra. Police recovered a 30-bore pistol and an empty cartridge case from the scene.
Her two daughters were in the lawn at the time
According to police, Ahsan’s two daughters were sitting in the lawn with their maternal grandmother when the shooting took place. Her husband was taken into custody — police sources say he is a grade-18 officer at the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation. Teams from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency collected evidence from the house, and the body was sent for a post-mortem examination.
Husband says the pistol went off by accident
The husband told investigators the pistol had discharged accidentally. Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari confirmed that account, but police say it has not yet been established whether the shooting was accidental or deliberate, and the FIR gives no motive. City Police Officer Hassan Mushtaq Sukhera says the investigation will be conducted on merit and every angle is being examined.
First Lady and Sherry Rehman express grief
First Lady Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari expressed deep sadness over the killing and called for a thorough, impartial and transparent investigation. She described it as a “disturbing pattern of killing of another professional woman in the same metropolitan area”, recalling the murder of Hina Javed, a 45-year-old digital media executive found dead at her Rawalpindi residence in August. Senator Sherry Rehman said: “No woman should have to live in fear for her life, least of all within her own home.”
