RAWALPINDI: The journalist community was shaken on Sunday after anchorperson Rabia Ahsan was found dead at her Gulshanabad home.
Ahsan, who previously co-hosted a current affairs show alongside senior journalists Amir Mateen and Rauf Klasra, was found with a gunshot wound below her neck, City Police Officer (CPO) Hassan Sukhera told reporters.
He said that her husband had been taken into custody following a complaint filed by the victim’s brother, and that the suspected murder weapon had been recovered.
An FIR was later registered at Saddar Beruni police station under Sections 302 of PPC and 2-A of Punjab Arms Ame-ndment Ordinance, 2015.
According to police, the 41-year-old Ahsan had two daughters, who were sitting in the lawn with their maternal grandmother at the time of the shooting.
Police also questioned a domestic worker from the household. According to Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari, the husband claimed the firearm had discharged by accident.
According to CPO Sukhera, teams from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency were collecting evidence from the crime scene, while the body had been shifted to hospital for autopsy. News of Ahsan’s untimely death prompted an outpouring of grief, with many of her colleagues, well-wishers and prominent individuals expressing anguish over the incident.
Alleged murder weapon recovered, police say husband taken into custody
First Lady Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari “expressed deep sadness over the killing” and called for a thorough, impartial and transparent investigation to establish the facts and ensure that those responsible are held accountable.
She also expressed dismay over the “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 who was found dead at her Rawalpindi residence in August.
In a post on X, Senator Sherry Rehman condemned the killing, saying: “No woman should have to live in fear for her life, least of all within her own home.”
Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2026
