Pakistani officials and father of shot Perth girl at odds over what led to fatal gunfight

Pakistani authorities claim officers came under fire first before returning shots in the mistaken identity killing of nine-year-old Australian girl Hania Ahmad, despite her father insisting police initiated the gunfight.

Authorities held a press conference on Tuesday, local time, to address the killing of Ahmad and the serious injuring of her brother and father at the hands of a state police officer in Pakistan last week.

There are conflicting accounts of how the incident unfolded in Chakwal, near the country’s capital of Islamabad, on June 10.

The Ahmad family were visiting from Perth and had stopped in to see a family member when two thieves pulled up next to their rental car and attempted to steal jewellery from the family. A Crime Control Department official saw the robbery unfold, and attempted to intervene.

The accounts from Hania’s father Adeel and other family members have differed from those of law enforcement on what followed, with Crime Control Department officials telling reporters the “robbers shot first”, before taking off down a nearby lane.

Hania’s father Adeel drove the family’s rental car away from the scene, but it was peppered with bullets after the CCD official thought the thieves had taken the car and were attempting to make a getaway.

Adeel said he believed the guns fired at them were AK-47s, and bullets caused the car’s brakes to fail before the car crashed into the gate of a nearby home. Adeel and his son were seriously injured, while Hania died at the scene. Hania’s mother Sidra was uninjured but is understood to be in shock.

Adeel Ahmad has previously disputed law enforcement’s official version of what happened, claiming to SBS Urdu the CCD officer had fired first.

“All of the firing was initiated by the CCD when we were being robbed,” he said.

The two thieves involved in the initial robbery of the family were also reportedly fatally shot by police just hours after Hania’s death.

At the press conference, Pakistani law enforcement officials said they had identified “grave errors” in the officers conduct, but again reiterated they believed the officer had been fired upon first.

“In incidents of these sorts, the officer needs to make a positive identity of the target before firing, and the firing needs to be in self defence,” they said.

“We believe the officer in this case was fired upon but the officer did not make a positive identity.

“The officer should have also aimed at the tyres of the car, which was not done, and it’s a grave error that led to the death of the girl.”

Officials said it was tragic the incident h