Australia demands answers after girl taken hostage is shot dead by Pakistan police

New Delhi (Raghwendra Pratap Singh) : Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called on authorities in Pakistan to investigate the fatal shooting of an Australian girl while on holiday with her family.

Nine-year-old Hania Ahmed and her family were taken hostage at gunpoint by armed robbers inside their rental car in the northern city of Chakwal in Punjab province on 10 June.

The suspects fired at a police officer, leading to a shootout, Punjab police said. A police officer, thinking that the suspects were fleeing on the family’s vehicle, “mistakenly” fired his gun, resulting in the nine-year-old’s death and wounding her father and older brother, police said.

Punjab police said the suspects fired first at the police officer, who has been placed under custody. However, the girl’s father told SBS Urdu that the police fired first.”These circumstances do need to be examined. They need to be examined in a transparent way, so that everyone can know, the family, most importantly, but others as well,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra on Monday.