Act Daily News
—
A distinguished Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist was shot lifeless on Monday at a court docket constructing within the northwestern metropolis of Peshawar, in keeping with police and a witness.
Abdul Latif Afridi, 79, a former president of Pakistan’s Supreme Court bar affiliation, was shot six occasions in a break room on the Peshawar High Court, Capital City police officer Muhammad Ijaz Khan instructed Act Daily News.
Khan recognized the suspect as junior lawyer Adnan Sami Afridi, 24, indirectly associated to the deceased Afridi, and mentioned he was taken into custody.
Witness Hayat Roghani mentioned the alleged gunman raised his fingers to give up after the capturing, saying he had taken revenge for his father’s loss of life. Police additionally instructed Act Daily News the alleged gunman mentioned it was a revenge killing.
The suspect’s father, lawyer Samiullah Afridi, was killed by unknown gunmen in 2015. At the time, two militant teams claimed accountability for killing Afridi, who labored for the physician who helped the CIA search for Osama bin Laden.
Though a heavy police contingent is often deployed on the Peshawar court docket, legal professionals should not physique searched on entry. Security association on the court docket have beforehand been questioned, particularly after a teenage boy shot and killed a US nationwide of Pakistani origin who was on trial on blasphemy costs contained in the courtroom in 2020.
Latif Afridi, additionally a former lawmaker, had been a vocal critic of the highly effective army’s alleged interference in Pakistani politics and of Islamist militancy.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a assertion on Twitter expressing his grief and “deep sorrow” over Latif Afridi’s loss of life.
He additionally condemned what he known as the “worsening law and order situation” within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital.