Nine-year-old Australian girl Hania Ahmed’s planned family visit to Pakistan ended in tragedy. Hania Ahmed’s father is now demanding justice after she was killed in a police shooting in Punjab province.Hania and her family were visiting relatives in Chakwal, Punjab province, late Wednesday night when armed robbers confronted them outside the home of her great-uncle Ali Ejaz, demanding cash, jewelry and other valuables, The Guardian reported.Ejaz said Hania’s father Adil Ahmed, mother and brother Affan begged the robbers “not to hurt my family” before agreeing to hand over their belongings.After a few moments, the situation spiraled out of control.Officers from the newly formed Crime Control Department (CCD) of the Punjab Police arrived at the scene shortly before midnight. CCTV footage viewed by the Guardian showed police opening fire with machine guns as the robbers and their families tried to escape.One witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, recalled the chaos that followed.“I could see cars speeding and police shooting directly at the cars,” they said. “Two CCD officers then stopped a passerby on his motorcycle and sat on it before three or four officers in a vehicle chased the family car.”Haniyeh was shot four times in the exchange of gunfire and died before being taken to a hospital. Her father, 39-year-old Adeel Ahmed, was reportedly shot twice but was not seriously injured. Her 11-year-old brother Aafan was also hit twice and is recovering. Benazir Bhutto Hospitals in Rawalpindi.The loss is a devastating blow for a family who had recently completed the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia and were preparing to return home to Australia on Monday.“This incident has left families and people in the area heartbroken,” Ejaz said, reflecting the grief of the local community and relatives overseas.Photos of the family’s car, bloodied and riddled with bullet holes, quickly circulated on social media, sparking outrage over the police response.Punjab Police later said an officer “erroneously believed the suspect was trying to escape in the victim’s vehicle and opened fire.” The officer was suspended, arrested and remanded in custody as authorities promised a “thorough and impartial investigation”.Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also called for a “transparent and proportionate” investigation.Friends and relatives said Adil Ahmed was still in shock and struggling to come to terms with his daughter’s death. He said in the recording that those responsible should be punished “to prevent this incident from happening again and reduce the danger of CCD.”“This was initiated by the CCD. The thieves did not fire first. They only fired in revenge,” Ahmed said.“There are at least four CCD officers and they should be charged,” he added.CCD chief Sahail Zafar Chatta insisted that the robbers fired first, but admitted that the police should not have continued firing without confirming who was in the fleeing vehicle.“CCD officers continued to fire without clear identification, which seriously violated CCD regulations,” he said. “We have opened a case, and the family also expressed confidence in the results of the investigation.”The incident also sparked renewed scrutiny of the CCD, a specialized police unit established last year to tackle serious crime. Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission has called for a judicial inquiry into hundreds of killings linked to the unit, claiming it encounters killings “as a matter of policy”.Chatta dismissed the criticism, saying: “We have an extremely polarized political society in this country and it’s because of politics that we face criticism.”For Hania’s family, however, the focus remains on a young life that was cut short and the search for answers about how a robbery turned into a fatal police shooting.
