Beloved TV anchor shot dead by husband

Rabia Ahsan, a 41-year-old program host for 92 News, was found dead with a gunshot wound in the bedroom of her Rawalpindi home around 3 p.m. local time on Sunday, November 8, according to Rawalpindi City Police cited by NDTV, Samaa and Times of India. Her mother and sister were outside at the time; after hearing the shot, her sister ran in to find Ahsan lying "in a pool of blood" on the floor with a wound below her neck and on the right side of her back, People.com reported from the police report. Family members allegedly found her husband, Ahsan Tahir Khan, standing inside the bedroom holding a firearm. Ahsan's brother, Khurram Ahmed, filed a complaint accusing his brother-in-law of killing his sister, prompting an investigation. Khan, identified by Punjab Information Minister Azma Zahid Bokhari as a civil service officer at the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation, was taken into custody after he allegedly confessed to accidentally discharging the weapon while claiming he did not know it was loaded, according to Samaa and Dawn News. A male domestic worker also told police that Khan said he fired the gun accidentally, Dawn News reported. The Punjab Forensic Science Authority recovered a .30-bore pistol and ammunition from the scene, NDTV said. Ahsan's body was sent for a postmortem examination. Police are preparing to pursue a murder case against Khan, Fox News reported, and a court has extended his physical remand by four days, Dawn noted. Ahsan and Khan had been married for about 16 years and had two daughters, aged 13 and 11, per Samaa and Times of India. The killing drew an outpouring of grief from Pakistan's journalism community and a statement from the Pakistani presidency. First Lady Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari expressed deep sadness, called for a "thorough, impartial and transparent investigation" and voiced concern over what she described as a "disturbing pattern" of professional women being targeted and allegedly killed by their husbands in the same metropolitan area, citing the case of media executive Hina Javed, who was found dead with signs of torture three months earlier with her husband and a domestic worker arrested, according to Dawn.