Anchor Rabiya Ahsan’s husband booked for murder as FIR details shooting

RAWALPINDI: Police have registered a murder case against the husband of television anchor Rabiya Ahsan, a day after she was found shot dead inside her home in Rawalpindi’s Gulshanabad area, according to the First Information Report (FIR).

The case was registered at Sadr Baruni Police Station on the complaint of Rabiya’s brother, Khurram Ahmed, under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code and provisions of the Punjab Arms Amendment Ordinance.

The FIR names Ahsan Tahir as the suspect and records the complainant’s allegation that he shot and killed his wife inside their bedroom.

Rabiya, a television anchor and programme host associated with 92 News, was found shot dead at her home on Sunday. Police had taken her husband into custody shortly after the incident and seized a pistol from the scene.

FIR gives family’s account

According to the FIR, Khurram Ahmed told police he was travelling from Islamabad to visit his sister at her Gulshanabad residence when another sister called him and informed him about a shooting at the house.

The complainant said his sister told him that she and their mother had been sitting in the lawn at around 2:30pm while Rabiya Ahsan and her husband were inside their bedroom.

According to the statement recorded in the FIR, she heard a gunshot from the bedroom and rushed inside.

She allegedly found Rabiya lying on the floor next to the bed, covered in blood, while Ahsan Tahir was holding a pistol, the FIR said.

Ahmed told police that when he reached the house, he found his sister’s body lying on the bedroom floor and asked authorities to take legal action against her husband.

The allegation in the FIR is the complainant’s account and remains subject to police investigation and subsequent court proceedings.

Pistol recovered, forensic evidence collected

Police said officers reached the Gulshanabad residence after receiving information about the incident and recorded the complainant’s statement at the scene.

According to the FIR, an initial examination of the body found two bloodstained wounds, one near the front of the neck and another on the right side of the back.

The body was subsequently sent to Benazir Bhutto Hospital in Rawalpindi for a post-mortem examination.

A Punjab Forensic Science Agency crime scene team was also called to the house to collect evidence.

The FIR states that forensic personnel recovered a 30-bore pistol and an empty cartridge case from the scene.

Police further recorded in the FIR that Ahsan Tahir told investigators at the scene that he had fired at his wife with the recovered pistol.

The FIR does not give a motive for the shooting or state whether the suspect described it as deliberate.

Police also said the suspect was unable to produce a licence or permit for the recovered weapon, leading investigators to add an offence under the Punjab Arms Amendment Ordinance.

The latest police record follows an initial account on Sunday, when sources told HUM English that Ahsan Tahir had claimed during preliminary questioning that the firearm had discharged accidentally.

City Police Officer Hassan Mushtaq Sukhera had confirmed at the time that Rabiya’s husband had been taken into custody and said investigators were examining the death from all angles.

The FIR does not address the apparent difference between the earlier claim of an accidental discharge and the statement subsequently recorded by police that the suspect acknowledged firing the weapon.

Police have not yet publicly disclosed a possible motive. The investigation remains under way, while the post-mortem and forensic findings are expected to form part of the case record.