{"id":740186,"date":"2026-06-16T13:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/740186\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T13:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:14:08","slug":"father-of-australian-girl-shot-by-police-while-visiting-pakistan-demands-justice-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/740186\/","title":{"rendered":"Father of Australian girl shot by police while visiting Pakistan demands justice | Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The father of a nine-year-old Australian girl killed in Pakistan<\/a> on holiday has demanded justice and to \u201creduce the harm\u201d of a controversial new police wing whose officers opened fire with machine guns in response to a robbery.<\/p>\n

Hania Ahmed and her family were visiting her great-uncle Ali Ejaz last week at his home in Chakwal, Punjab province.<\/p>\n

Robbers confronted the family outside Ejaz\u2019s home late on Wednesday, demanding they hand over cash, jewellery and other possessions, Ejaz told the Guardian.<\/p>\n

He said Hania\u2019s father, Adeel Ahmed, her mother, Hania, and brother Aafan, 11, had pleaded with them \u201cdon\u2019t harm my family\u201d and agreed to hand over their possessions.<\/p>\n

But within 30 seconds of that exchange, shortly before midnight, according to CCTV footage seen by the Guardian, officers from the crime control department (CCD), a newly formed Punjab police wing, arrived from a nearby station armed with machine guns and opened fire on both the robbers and the family, who were attempting to flee in a car.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email <\/a><\/p>\n

An eyewitness, who requested anonymity, told the Guardian that they had watched the incident from about 20 metres away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see the car speeding and the police officer firing straight at the car,\u201d they said. \u201cThen the two CCD officials stopped a passerby motorbike, sat on it and followed by three or four more police personnel in a car and chased the family car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Map showing the location of Chakwal, Pakistan<\/a><\/p>\n

Nine-year-old Hania was killed in the exchange. The Guardian understands she was hit by four bullets and died before reaching the hospital.<\/p>\n

Her father, Adeel, 39, was reportedly shot twice but was not seriously injured, according to the CCD police chief, Sohail Zafar Chatta.<\/p>\n

The family had just returned from hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, and had been due to arrive back in Australia on Monday.<\/p>\n

The incident \u201chas shattered the family and people in the area\u201d and the family demanded justice, Ejaz said.<\/p>\n

Pictures of a blood-stained car with dozens of bullet holes spread on social media amid public criticism of the police response.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Punjab police said an officer had \u201cmistakenly assessed that the suspects were attempting to flee in the victims\u2019 vehicle and discharged his weapon\u201d. The officer has been suspended from duty, formally arrested and faced court, where he was remanded to judicial custody in jail, with police promising a \u201cthorough, impartial investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has also called for a \u201ctransparent and proper\u201d investigation.<\/p>\n

Hania was a year 4 student at Australian Islamic College in Perth<\/a>. Her brother Aafan was shot twice and was recovering in Benazir Bhutto hospital in Rawalpindi.<\/p>\n

Chatta had visited the family on Sunday and promised a transparent investigation, he said.<\/p>\n

Adeel Ahmed, Hania\u2019s father, was said by friends and family still to be in shock, struggling to process the tragedy.<\/p>\n

In a recorded message he said those responsible should be punished \u201cso that this incident does not repeat, and the dangers of the CCD are reduced\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was started by the CCD. The thieves did not start the firing first. They only fired in retaliation,\u201d Ahmed said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were at least four CCD officials and they should be charged,\u201d he said in the recorded message.<\/p>\n

However, Chatta said the armed robbers had started the firing \u2013 though he accepted that the CCD officer should not have fired at the car without confirming the armed robbers were in the vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe continuation of firing by CCD officials without positive identification was a grave violation of the CCD rules,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have registered a case and the family has expressed trust in the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CCD was created last May as a new department. Punjab police have been criticised for \u201cextrajudicial killings\u201d across the province. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has called for a judicial investigation of at least 924 killings by the CCD in the last eight months of 2025.<\/p>\n

Its 45-page report said the CCD adopted encounter killings \u201cas a matter of policy\u201d in Punjab province, undermining the rule of law and constitutional safeguards.<\/p>\n

Chatta rejected the accusations, saying: \u201cWe have an extremely polarised political society in the country and that\u2019s because of politics, we are facing criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father of a nine-year-old Australian girl killed in Pakistan on holiday has demanded justice and to \u201creduce…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-740186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}