Gunman dressed as attorney kills well known attorney inside of courtroom in Pakistan

A gunman dressed in complete judicial robes shot and killed a notable attorney within a courtroom in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, law enforcement 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 distinguished figure in the group, fatally wounding him. The attack took spot at the High Courtroom in Peshawar.

The attacker, Adnan Khan, had earlier accused Afridi of orchestrating the 2015 killing of his father, Samiullah Khan, who was also a attorney, mentioned Naeem Khan, a police officer.

The gunman fired six photographs at 79-yr-aged Afridi’s chest from less than a foot absent, eyewitness and lawful assistant Muhammad Rizwan told AFP.

According to Rizwan, as the gunman surrendered to police, he explained: “Really don’t shoot, I experienced a feud with him and I have taken my revenge.”

It was unclear how the attacker managed to sneak into the court docket creating with a handgun. The killing was condemned by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, govt officials, politicians and lawyers.

In a assertion, Sharif expressed problem over the deteriorating security scenario in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the place Peshawar is the money. His chief rival, the occasion of opposition chief and previous Key Minister Imran Khan is in energy in the provincial assembly.

Sharif explained Afridi as “a seasoned jurist and a courageous politician who was regarded for his righteousness”.

Just before his killing, Samiullah Khan, the father of the attacker, experienced represented Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who assisted the CIA obtain al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden was killed in 2011 by Navy SEALs in a raid on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The health practitioner ran a faux vaccination marketing campaign that helped track down and detect bin Laden. The medical professional and the attorney killed on Monday are not linked.

In 2012, Pakistan sentenced Shakil Afridi to 33 a long time in prison on prices of allegedly providing income and health-related remedy to Islamic militants in a previous tribal area. Afridi and his household have denied those rates.

Pakistan was outraged about currently being kept in the darkish in advance of the SEALs procedure. Washington has demanded Afridi’s release but Islamabad has resisted the desire, declaring he violated Pakistani law. The medical doctor was by no means formally charged in bin Laden’s situation.

AFP contributed to this report.