In a bizarre incident, a nine-year-old Australian girl of Pakistan origin was killed and her father and brother were left critically injured after police opened indiscriminate fire on their vehicle over suspicion of them being robbers.
According to police, the incident took place on June 10 in Chakwal district, about 300 km from Lahore, in Punjab province of Pakistan, PTI reported.
The shocking incident has caused significant distress to the Australian-Pakistani community, according to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
It noted that assistance is being provided to the victim family.
Notably, the Australian-Pakistan family, which included Adeel Ahmed (39), his wife Dr Sidra Khan and their children – daughter Hania, 9, and son Aafan, 10 – came back to Pakistan after performing Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia last week.
Recently, the family was travelling to Ahmed’s father-in-law’s residence for dinner in a car when they were waylaid by two armed gunmen on a motorcycle.
Soon after, he called the police emergency number, while the incident was communicated to the Crime Control Department (CCD).
After arriving at the spot, the CCD personnel mistook the family in the vehicle as robbers and started indiscriminate fire.
As the car was riddled with bullets, the incident killed Hania on the spot and Addel and Aafan were critically injured and shifted to hospital. Dr Sidra remained unhurt in the incident.
Police said they have taken a CCD official involved in the firing incident into custody on murder charges and launched a formal investigation against others.