Punjab University (PU) Professor Tahira Abdullah was killed during a robbery by the university’s electrician and his accomplices, Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) SP Tariq Mastoi said in a press conference on Saturday.
The initial postmortem report had revealed that a sharp object was used to murder her. According to SP Tariq, the university’s electrician and his collaborators were involved in the murder of the professor.
The suspects stole her mobile phone, cash and then killed her, he said.
Earlier, on the eve of murder, SHO Ali of Lahore police told a local news publication that the murdered did not take anything but her phone. Police found Rs 50,000 in the professor’s purse, which were untouched by the murderer.
Earlier, the spokesperson for the Jamaat Ahmadiyya Pakistan, Saleemuddin, said Professor Abdullah was an Ahmadi and it was highly probable that she had been killed because of her faith. Police too were trying to determine whether or not the cause behind her murder was being an Ahmadi.
After retiring from PU’s Molecular Genetics department, Professor Abdullah was working on a contractual basis at the varsity. She had been living alone after the death of her husband, who died a few years back. On Tuesday, she was found dead at her house.
This was a third murder of an Ahmadi in Lahore region during the last 3 weeks. On April 7, a veterinary doctor, Ashfaq Ahmed was shot in the Sabzazar area of Lahore in what appeared to be a faith-based targeted attack. On March 30, a local leader of the Ahmadiyya community, who was also a cousin of noble laureate Dr Abdus Salam, was killed in Nankana Sahib in an attack apparently motivated by religious hatred.
In 2016, a total of six Ahmadis were killed in Pakistan because of their religious beliefs, claimed a recent report issued by the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya.
