By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Rabia Ahsan, a presenter with a local private channel 92 News, was found shot dead in the bedroom of her home in Rawalpindi on Sunday, and her husband has been taken into custody.
Rawalpindi’s City Police Officer, Hassan Mushtaq Sukhera, said she was discovered at the family’s house in the Gulshanabad area of Adiala Road with a bullet wound below the neck. Police recovered a firearm from the room, and the suspected weapon has been seized. Sukhera said an investigation had been launched.
The husband is named in local media reports as Ahsan Tahir Khan, a grade-18 officer at the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation. Sukhera said a male domestic worker at the house told officers that the husband had said the shot was fired accidentally. Punjab’s information minister, Azma Bokhari, said the suspect claimed the weapon discharged while he was playing with it.
Police have not said whether they accept that account. Investigators have not established whether the shooting was accidental or deliberate, and a police spokesperson said the suspect had yet to be questioned and that no conclusions would be drawn before the inquiry was complete. Some outlets described the husband’s initial statement as a confession, but the account attributed to him was that the gun went off accidentally.
Details of the account differ between officials. Bokhari said the journalist was found with a gunshot wound to the head, while police described the wound as being at the front of the neck. A post-mortem examination is expected to settle the point. Bokhari gave the victim’s age as 41 and named her as Rabiya Ahmad.
Police sources said Ahsan’s mother and sisters were in the house when she was shot. She presented her last programme on Saturday night. She is survived by two daughters and also ran a private salon in Islamabad. Media reports said the couple had married by choice and that no argument or domestic discord had been reported to police at first.
Sukhera attended the scene with the senior superintendents of police for operations and investigations, along with forensic experts. Teams from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency collected evidence, and the body was taken to the District Headquarters Hospital for a post-mortem examination. A murder case is being registered against the suspect at the Sadar Bairuni police station. Sukhera said an investigation “on merit” would be ensured.
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