A Pakistani television anchor posted a roughly 10-minute analysis of the U.S. midterm elections hours before her sister ran into her bedroom and found her on the floor in a pool of blood.
Ahsan Tahir, a deputy director at the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation, told police he had fired at his wife, 92 News anchor and program host Rabia Ahsan, 41, with the same weapon, according to an updated report of the case registered at Saddar Beruni Police Station over the shooting at the couple’s home in Gulshanabad Sector II, on Adiala Road, on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026.
A court in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, extended Tahir’s physical remand by four days on Tuesday, Nov. 10, after investigators asked for seven. Senior Civil Judge Muhammad Nasrullah Wattoo handed Tahir to Saddar Beruni police for further investigation and ordered him produced again Nov. 14, with a detailed investigation report and the post-mortem report. The same court had granted a one-day physical remand on Monday, Nov. 9.
Ahsan hosted the current affairs program “Muqabil” and worked alongside senior journalists including Amir Mateen and Rauf Klasra. She also ran a private salon in Islamabad, Pakistan. Two daughters survive her, and her death set off an outpouring of grief among colleagues and across Pakistan’s journalist community.
Her last program on a mainstream television channel aired the night before she was killed. Hours before her death she posted a YouTube video, the piece on the U.S. midterm elections titled “Regime Change in America: Trump Could Not Deliver, U.S. Has Changed.”
A Pistol Fell From Winter Clothes
Tahir acknowledged the shooting in a statement under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure but maintained it was accidental rather than intentional, police told the court. He told investigators he had been taking winter clothes for himself, his wife and their children out of a cupboard when a pistol fell from the clothes and discharged, according to police sources.
He expressed deep remorse in that account and said there had been no premeditation or conspiracy to kill her. His daughters were at home and could corroborate his version, he claimed.
Punjab Information Minister Azma Zahid Bokhari said the husband, identified as Ahsan Tahir Khan, claimed he was playing with a firearm in the home when it accidentally discharged.
Tahir handed the pistol to police voluntarily and produced no license or permit for it. Officers have a 30-bore pistol and bullets in their custody.
A male domestic worker at the house told police the husband had said the gunshot was accidental, according to police. Police sources said a 15-year-old domestic worker, hired around two weeks before the shooting, was sent back to his home.
Her Sister Ran Into the Bedroom
The shot came from inside the bedroom at around 2:30 p.m., according to the first information report. Her mother and one sister were out on the lawn at the time, the FIR said.
Her sister Alwina ran in and found Ahsan on the floor in a pool of blood, with Tahir holding a pistol. Alwina phoned their brother, Khurram Ahmed, who was traveling from Islamabad to the house.
Khurram Ahmed accused Tahir of shooting his sister. Police registered the case on his complaint at Saddar Beruni Police Station under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 13(2)(a) of the Punjab Arms Amendment Ordinance.
Ahsan’s sister told Hum News that the family intended to withdraw the murder case, describing the shooting as entirely accidental, and Khurram Ahmed separately told ARY News he had withdrawn his complaint amid the possibility the shooting may have been accidental. Mateen, her former co-host, rejected reports that the marriage was free of discord and said she had been a victim of domestic violence and had wanted a divorce. Mateen’s claims have not been independently verified.
What a Polygraph Cannot Settle
Police put the husband through a polygraph test to check his account that the pistol went off by accident. The test was carried out Wednesday, Nov. 11, at the Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory in Lahore, Pakistan, and lasted more than two hours, Samaa TV reported, citing police sources. Officers told the court the findings will be folded into the investigation report.
A polygraph is not decisive on its own. It records physiological responses — heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and sweating — and cannot independently establish whether a statement is true or false.
Investigators have sought a forensic examination of whether the bullet that killed her came from the pistol recovered from her husband. The pistol and a bullet casing went for analysis to determine whether the recovered weapon was the one used, and samples from the post-mortem examination were sent to a forensic laboratory in Lahore as well.
Preliminary post-mortem findings confirmed a single gunshot wound below the neck, with the bullet exiting through her back. Examiners found no signs of physical violence on her body.
Rawalpindi City Police Officer Hassan Mushtaq Sukhera went to the house with the senior superintendents of police for operations and investigations and a team of forensic experts. Punjab Forensic Science Agency teams collected evidence from the scene.
The Presidency Invokes Hina Javed
First Lady Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari condemned the killing in a statement issued by the Presidency, calling for an investigation that is thorough, impartial and transparent, for the facts to be established and for those responsible to be held to account.
She raised concern over a “disturbing pattern of killing of another professional woman in the same metropolitan area,” pointing to the murder of Hina Javed, a digital media executive found dead at her Rawalpindi residence in August with signs of torture.
Javed’s husband and a domestic worker were reportedly arrested in connection with her killing.
Tahir is due back before Wattoo on Nov. 14, when officers are to submit the post-mortem report and a detailed investigation file that includes the polygraph findings.
