Court remands TV anchor Rabia Ahsan's husband as family moves to withdraw case

A Rawalpindi court on Monday handed Ahsan Tahir, the husband of television anchor Rabia Ahsan, to police on physical remand, as her family said it had decided to withdraw the murder case registered against him.

Rabia Ahsan, 41, who hosted the programme Muqabil on 92 News with journalist Aamir Mateen, was found dead on Sunday in a room of her house in Gulshanabad on Adiala Road. The initial post-mortem report and police said a single bullet struck the lower front of her neck.

The FIR was registered at Saddar Bairuni police station under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of her brother, Khurram Ahmed. Investigating officers said the 30-bore pistol recovered from the room appeared to be unlicensed, and that the case also carries a charge under section 2-A of the Punjab Arms Amendment Ordinance 2015. Express News reported that the accused could not produce a licence for the weapon.

Accounts of the remand differ. BBC Urdu and Independent Urdu reported that the court granted two days of physical remand. Express News reported that a one-day remand was approved and that the accused would be produced in court again the next day. Ahsan Tahir's lawyer, Samiullah Wahid, confirmed the remand to Independent Urdu.

Punjab Information Minister Uzma Bukhari said in a statement on X that during interrogation the husband had claimed the pistol fired accidentally.

Express News, citing the FIR, reported that Ahsan Tahir told police he had fired at his wife with the same pistol. BBC Urdu and Independent Urdu carried only the account in which he described the shot as accidental.

Khurram Ahmed told BBC Urdu that he, his mother and his sister had agreed that Rabia's death was an accident, and that the family had decided to withdraw the case. He said he was not in the house when it happened, but that his mother and sister were, along with a domestic employee. He said the accused told him he was taking clothes out of a cupboard, picked up the pistol lying there, and it went off.

Express News, quoting the FIR, reported that Rabia's mother and sister were in the lawn when they heard a shot from the bedroom, and that her sister found her on the floor in blood with the pistol in Ahsan Tahir's hand.

Police said no member of the household had described any dispute between the couple. They said all possible motives, including murder, were being examined and that the conclusion would rest on forensic, post-mortem and investigative evidence. Rawalpindi police chief Hasan Mushtaq Sukhera said Punjab Forensic Science Agency teams had collected evidence from the house and the weapon used had been recovered.

Funeral prayers were offered at Jamia Masjid Gulshanabad. Rabia Ahsan, a mother of two daughters, married Ahsan Tahir about 14 years ago. Police sources said he is a deputy director at the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation.