FIR filed against two suspects in former LHC judge's murder

Police claim attack result of family feud, lawyers boycott court proceedings

RAWALPINDI: A day after he was shot just a stone’s throw away from the precinct, the Gujjar Khan police finally filed a case for the murder of a former high court judge even as lawyers boycotted proceedings in high and lowers courts of the district in protest.

On Tuesday, former Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Chaudhary Mahmood Akhtar was gunned down in a targetted attack by two unidentified armed assailants riding a motorbike near the Jatli police station in Gujjar Khan. His niece was also injured in the incident but his wife escaped unhurt.



On Wednesday, his wife Zubeda Taslim filed a formal complaint with the Jatli police under Section 349 against the two men for murder and attempted murder.

In the first information report (FIR), she states that after attending a funeral near Turkwal Stop, they were returning to Chakwal when two men riding on a motorbike fired on them.

Two bullets pierced the car’s windshield and struck Justice Akhtar, killing him on the spot. While fleeing, the assailants fired again and injured her niece Sajida.

She identified the assailants as Sajjad Anwar — who was driving the bike, while Sohail Akram was riding pillion.

Police said that the attack was motived by a family feud.

Boycott

Meanwhile, following a call by the High Court and District Bar Associations, lawyers boycotted legal proceedings in the higher and lower courts of the district to protest against the targetted killing of the former high court justice.

In the higher courts, only urgent cases were heard for half an hour. In the district courts, the sessions, civil, family, and magistrate courts only partially heard cases.

District Bar Association President Khurram Masood Kiani and High Court Bar Association President Hassan Raza Pasha spoke at a protest demonstration by lawyers. They demanded that the two men named in the FIR should be arrested as soon as possible.

They further demanded including anti-terror clauses in the FIR.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2018.