An upstate TV exec who set up a channel promoting Muslims as peace-loving people was stressed about his failing business in the days before he allegedly chopped off his estranged wife’s head, a friend of the couple said today.
An order of protection barring Muzzammil Hassan, 44, from the couple’s upstate home had been taken out by his wife, Aasiya, 37, less than a week before she died.
The couple was in the process of divorcing after bouts of domestic violence, her lawyer told the Buffalo News.
Hassan, who founded Bridges TV in 2004 to counter anti-Islam stereotypes following 9/11, turned himself in to cops Thursday in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park. Police later found his beheaded wife in the TV studios.
He was charged with murder.
“He was worried about the station’s future,” said Dr. Khalid Qazi, a friend of the couple and president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York, who last spoke to the Hassans a week ago.
“He was stressed, but this has left me absolutely shocked. I still cannot believe it.”
Police have still not found the weapon used in the killing, an officer said today.
Bridges TV was set up with $10 million in backing from more than 50 investors. Two years ago, Hassan told Arab News magazine he needed another $5 million and was reaching out to supporters in Saudi Arabia.
Hassan, a father of four who moved to the United States from Pakistan 25 years ago, worked as a banker in Buffalo before quitting to start up the station.
The family home was empty today. A police note stuck to the door five hours before Aasiya’s body was found asked her to contact cops.
Nobody at the Orchard Park Police Department today could explain why officers wanted to speak to her.
Qazi said the killings went against the teachings of Islam and damaged the image of Muslims that Hassan worked to promote.
“Domestic violence is despicable, and Islam condones it in no way whatever,” he said.
Murders are being committed in the US every day by people of all faiths.”