PESHAWAR: Abdul Latif Afridi, a top lawyer and former president of the Supreme Court and the Peshawar High Court (PHC) bar associations, was shot dead inside a courtroom in the northwestern city of Peshawar, police and health officials said on Monday.
The attacker, who was arrested at the scene, had opened fire at Afridi, when he was sitting with his colleagues in the PHC bar room.
“Unfortunately, he was killed inside the bar room,” Senior Superintendent of Police Kashif Abbasi told Arab News.
"He was killed by his relative with whom the slain lawyer had a family feud."
The suspect, Adnan, was under police custody and the case was being probed from different angles, SSP Abbasi said.
Muhammad Asim, a spokesperson for Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), said the top lawyer had succumbed to his injuries on way to the hospital.
“He received five bullets to his chest, abdomen and leg,” Asim added.
Police officers survey the crime scene after a gunman killed Abdul Latif Afridi, lawyer and former president of Pakistan's Supreme Court Bar Association, in Peshawar on January 16, 2023. (REUTERS)
Advocate Faisal Khan said he was having tea along with his colleagues outside the bar room, when they heard multiple gunshots.
“We rushed inside the bar room the moment we heard gunfire and found Afridi lying in a pool of blood on a sofa,” he added.
Afridi, a renowned human rights and political activist, was considered a vocal critic of the Pakistani military's interference in domestic politics and of militancy.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he was deeply grieved over the “brutal murder of the renowned jurist.”
"I pray for patience for his family and elevation of his stages [in the hereafter]," PM Sharif said on Twitter.
"The worsening law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is alarming. The provincial government should immediately take steps to improve it."
KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan condemned the killing, while Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon, another former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), called it a "failure" of the provincial government.
“Today, we’ve been deprived of a great person who was simultaneously a lawyer, a politician and a matchless leader,” Bhoon said.
"Late Afridi was a strong pro-democracy and anti-dictatorship voice. I’m speechless today. His killing is a national loss and I don’t think the vacuum left by the slain lawyer can be filled anytime soon."
