[FoxNews] A gunman dressed as a lawyer shot and killed a prominent attorney inside a courtroom in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, police said.
The attacker, who was arrested at the scene, had opened fire at Abdul Latif Afridi, a former president of Pakistan’s lawyers union and a prominent figure in the community, fatally wounding him. The attack took place at the High Court in Peshawar.
The attacker, Adnan Khan, had previously accused Afridi of orchestrating the 2015 killing of his father, Samiullah Khan, who was also a lawyer, said Naeem Khan, a police officer.
It was unclear how the attacker managed to sneak into the court building with a handgun. The killing was condemned by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, government officials, politicians and lawyers.
In a statement, Sharif expressed concern over the deteriorating security situation in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Peshawar is the capital. His chief rival, the party of opposition leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan is in power in the provincial assembly.
Before his killing, Samiullah Khan, the father of the attacker, had represented Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani physician who helped the CIA find al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden was killed in 2011 by Navy SEALs in a raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The physician ran a fake vaccination campaign that helped locate and identify bin Laden. The doctor and the lawyer killed on Monday are not related.
In 2012, Pakistan sentenced Shakil Afridi to 33 years in prison on charges of allegedly providing money and medical treatment to Islamic militants in a former tribal region. Afridi and his family have denied those charges.
Pakistan was outraged over being kept in the dark ahead of the SEALs operation. Washington has demanded Afridi’s release but Islamabad has resisted the demand, saying he violated Pakistani law. The doctor was never formally charged in bin Laden’s case.
| Khaama Press adds: |
The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire...high court bar association described the terror incident as security lapse and criticized how a gunman managed to reach the bar room, and shoot Afridi.
Following the incident, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and many high-ranking Pak politicians and public figures condemned the brutal attack on the senior lawyer and expressed their deep condolences to the family and relatives of the victim.
| More from Dawn: |
The police claimed that the attacker, identified as Adnan Samiullah Afridi, was arrested from the scene of the crime and moved to East CantoÂnÂment Police Station where a case was registered.
An officer at the cop shoppe told Dawn that the suspect had confessed to the crime and that he had killed the victim over a family feud.
‘A PROGRESSIVE VOICE NO MORE’
Afridi’s killing marks the end of an era and has left the legal fraternity and his admirers shaken.
Latif Afridi, commonly known as Latif Lala, has left behind a legacy of a decades-long struggle for civil liberties, democracy, rule of law, and the rights of people, especially those belonging to the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Born in 1943, he had done his LLB from the University of Peshawar in 1968 and his career as a lawyer spanned over five decades. His election as the president of the Supreme Court
...the political football known as The Highest Court in the Land, home of penumbrae and emanations...Bar Association in 2020 and multiple tenures as the president of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association is a testimony to his popularity among the lawyer community.
He had also remained the vice chairman and a member of the Pakistain Bar Council.
He was also a blunt critic of militancy in the region and often called for a clear state policy on terrorism. He was also vocal against the military’s interference in politics and termed the practice usurpation of the fundamental rights of people.
During his lifetime, Latif Lala was known for his progressive politics. DurÂing his political career, he largely remained associated with the Awami National Party
founded by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986. Part of the PPP-led cabinet 2008-13. The ANP is considered left wing, advocating for secularism, democratic socialism, public sector government, and economic egalitarianism....
, with which he stayed until a few years ago. Before his death, he was a part of the National Democratic Party — a recently-formed party led by North Wazoo politician Mohsin Dawar.