A man who allegedly shot a woman dead over her refusal to start an affair with him died by suicide during a police raid on his hideout in Sargodha on Wednesday, police said.
The suspect, identified as Mohsin Abbas, allegedly killed Robina Akhtar, the niece of his former employer Muhammad Sadiq, at a cloth shop in the main bazaar of Qadirabad, Mandi Bahauddin, on Tuesday.
According to the complainant filed by a resident of Qadirabad, Abbas previously worked for him. Sadiq said that his niece had complained that the suspect repeatedly pressured her to start an affair with him, following which he dismissed Abbas from his employment.
Sadiq told police that Robina was due to get married on November 20 and had gone to a cloth shop in the main bazaar for shopping when Abbas arrived there and opened fire on her with a pistol.
She died at the scene, while the suspect fled after the shooting.
Police and teams from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) reached the crime scene after receiving information about the incident and collected evidence. Authorities shifted the body to a local government hospital, where doctors conducted an autopsy before handing it over to the family.
Police registered a case against five people, including Abbas, his father Nazeer Ahmed, a relative named Shahbaz Ahmed and two unidentified suspects, under Sections 302 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
A spokesperson for Mandi Bahauddin police said that teams traced Abbas through modern technology, including CCTV footage, and located his hideout in Satellite Town, Sargodha.
The spokesperson stated that Abbas shot himself in the head during the police raid because he feared arrest.
During the investigation, police also found that Abbas had recorded and uploaded a TikTok video before killing Robina. In the video, he said that it could be his last video, according to police findings.
The incident came weeks after a bride was shot dead in Gujranwala, a day after her wedding, by a man whose marriage proposal her family had rejected.
The suspect in that case, identified as Sarfraz Ahmed, later died during an encounter with a Crime Control Department (CCD) team in Gujranwala. Police alleged that his own accomplices shot him during the encounter.
