Outrage As Lawyer Shot Dead In Court

A suspected gunman has killed a legal practitioner in Pakistan’s High Court on Monday.

The incident was followed by a shooting spree in the court which resulted in the death of a lawyer identified as Abdul Latif Afridi.

Investigation by the police revealed that Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist was shot dead on Monday at a court building in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

A police in the Capital City, Muhammad Ijaz Khan, Abdul Latif Afridi, 79, said a former president of Pakistan’s Supreme Court bar association, was shot six times in a break room at the Peshawar High Court.

Khan identified the suspect as 24-year-old junior lawyer Adnan Sami Afridi, who was not related to the deceased Afridi, and said he was apprehended.

The witness Hayat Roghani narrated that the alleged gunman raised his hands to surrender after the shooting, claiming he was seeking vengeance for his father’s death. According to police, the alleged gunman said it was a revenge killing.

In 2015, unknown gunmen killed the suspect’s father, lawyer Samiullah Afridi. At the time, two militant groups claimed responsibility for the assassination of Afridi, who worked for the doctor who assisted the CIA in its search for Osama bin Laden.

Despite the fact that a large police contingent is usually present at the Peshawar court, lawyers are not subjected to body searches upon entry. The court’s security arrangements have previously been called into question, particularly after a teenage boy shot and killed a US national of Pakistani origin who was on trial on blasphemy charges inside the courtroom in 2020.

Former lawmaker Latif Afridi had been a vocal critic of the powerful military’s alleged interference in Pakistani politics as well as Islamist militancy.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a statement on Twitter expressing his “deep sorrow” over the death of Latif Afridi.

He also condemned the “deteriorating law and order situation” in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the capital of which is Peshawar.