Islamabad: A female professor of Pakistan’s top Punjab University was found murdered in her house in the institution’s residential colony on Tuesday in Lahore, according to media reports.

The deceased Tahira Abdullah had been working at Punjab University on a contractual basis after retiring from the varsity’s Department of Molecular Genetics. She was teaching cell biology, DNA replication and repair, biochemistry and plant biotechnology at the post graduate level.

According to the reports, Saleemuddin, the spokesperson for the Jamaat Ahmadiyya Pakistan, said Professor Abdullah was an Ahmadi and it was very likely that she had been killed because of her faith.

The professor had been living alone in the house granted to her by the university as her husband had died a few years ago. Her only daughter lives in Karachi.

Punjab University spokesman Khurram Shehzad was quoted as saying that Professor Abdullah’s daughter had been calling her mother repeatedly since last night but there was no response. The daughter called her neighbours when she couldn’t reach her mother on her cell phone.

The neighbours informed the university administration and when guards broke open the door of the house they reportedly found Prof. Abdullah lying in a pool of blood with an injury on her forehead.

This is the third incident in last three weeks in which a member of Ahmadi community has been targeted.

On March 30, a community leader and cousin of late noble laureate Dr Abdus Salam was shot dead in Nankana Sahib in Punjab, while a veterinary doctor was killed in Lahore on April 7. The banned Jamaat-UL-Ahrar extremist group had claimed responsibility for those murders.