Target killings: PML-N lawyer escapes attack

Police say attack was bred out of personal enmity, the assailant did not wish to kill as bullets hit him in his legs.

KARACHI: A member of the Pakistan Muslim League-N’s Lawyer Forum, Rana Shamsad, survived an attack near his home in the Gulshan-e-Jamal area, within the precinct of Shahrah-e-Faisal police station.

SHO Sohail Sulehri said that Shamshad was on his way home when an unidentified man shot him thrice. The incident occurred early Sunday morning and he was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors said he was out of danger.

Sulehri said that preliminary investigations indicated the attack was due to a personal enmity and did not appear to be a case of target killing. It also seemed that the assailant did not wish to kill him as the bullets hit him in his legs.

The PML-N Lawyers Forum condemned the attack and said that Shamshad was targeted due to his political affiliation, thereby contradicting the version put forward by the police. The Forum’s Arshad Jadoon and PML-N’s Saleem Zia said that the incident reflects the persistent threats to lawyers and they asked law-enforcement agencies to provide them increased security.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2011.