Who Was Hania Ahmed? Nine-Year-Old Australian Girl Shot Dead By Pakistani Police After Family Mistaken For Armed Robbers

An Australian girl and her father and brother were killed and injured by Pakistani police commandos when they mistook them for gun-wielding thieves. Punjab Police Elite Force gunmen shot dead Hania Ahmed, a grade four student, from Perth on Wednesday in the city of Chakwal, authorities said. Her mother was unhurt; her 11-year-old brother, Aafan, was severely injured, and her father, Adeel Ahmed, 39, was also severely injured. Police said the family were trying to flee in their rental car after thieves tried to rob them at gunpoint.

Australian girl shot dead by Pakistani police commandos

The officer in action fired his gun and, in the ensuing chaos, he thought the suspects were trying to escape in the victim’s vehicle, the Punjab Police’s Crime Control Department stated in its Sunday release.

This wrong judgment led to the gruesome death of 10-year-old Hania, and injuries to her father and brother. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, whose age for the girl was given as nine, told journalists “transparency and a proper investigation of these circumstances” is to be expected.

To me, it appears that not only has a young girl lost her life but that there have been other members of the family who have been injured in circumstances that are very dire indeed, he said.

Officer remanded in custody 

The officer who shot at the family has been remanded in custody, while two men suspected of being in on the robbery were killed in an unrelated shootout, authorities said.

Australian Girl, 9, On Pak Vacation Killed After Cop ‘Mistakenly’ Shoots HerA cop, thinking that the robbers were fleeing in the family’s vehicle, “mistakenly” fired his gun, resulting in the death of the 9-year-old and injuring her brother and father, police said.

Australian PM makes urgent appeal

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged the leadership in Islamabad to get to the bottom of the killing of an Australian girl of Pakistani descent in Pakistan’s Punjab province while she was on holiday with her family. On June 10, armed robbers reportedly robbed and took hostage Hania Ahmed, 9, and her family at gunpoint during an armed robbery at their car in Chakwal district, 300 km from Lahore.

However, in the rescue operation, the robbers shot a police officer, resulting in a shoot-out, the police in Pakistan’s Punjab said. A cop, thinking that the robbers were fleeing in the family’s vehicle, “mistakenly” fired his gun, resulting in the death of the 9-year-old and injuring her brother and father, police said.

What exactly happened? 

The Australian-Pakistani family of four, Adeel Ahmed (39), his wife Dr Sidra Khan, daughter Hania and son Aafan (10), were in Pakistan after performing the Hajj pilgrimage last week in Saudi Arabia, Dawn reported.

Last Wednesday night, the family, originally from the Perth suburb of Kewdale, were going to his father-in-law’s house for dinner in a rental car when they were waylaid by two armed robbers on a motorcycle, the police said. Ahmad dialed the Police Emergency Number, and instructed the Crime Control Department (CCD) to investigate the issue. When the CCD personnel arrived, two robbers who were on a motorcycle fled and the rental vehicle also drove away.

The stolen car was spotted being driven away at once and police opened automatic fire on the vehicle “belonging” to the robbers, police said. As a result, Hania, her father and brother were critically injured and were rushed to a local hospital, where the girl was pronounced dead.

Robbers Identified

However, the Punjab police said there was “absolutely no justification for deviating from our established protocols”. They also claimed the two robbers who attempted to rob the family have been identified. These two men, Muhammad Abbas and Muhammad Fayyaz, were killed in a shootout with police in an attempt to flee, the police said.

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