Lawyer held for ‘providing gun’ in killing of blasphemy accused

A lawyer has been arrested for allegedly giving a pistol to a teenager accused of gunning down a blasphemy accused in court in Peshawar, officials told AFP on Wednesday.

Tahir Ahmad Nasim, who held dual Pakistan-US nationality, was killed on July 29, as he appeared in the court on blasphemy charges. Authorities say that 17-year-old Faisal Khan has confessed to the killing, claiming that a lawyer, Tufail Khan, provided him with the pistol.

According to investigating officer Lalzada Khan, Tufail Khan was arrested on Tuesday for "allegedly providing a pistol to the assassin to kill Nasim". "Tufail was produced before the judge in an anti-terrorist court. He was remanded into police custody for three days," Khan told AFP.

Lawyers don't typically undergo a pat-down on going into courts, and officials said Tufail had discreetly handed the pistol over to Faisal. Nasim, a member of the Ahmadi community, had returned to Pakistan from the US in 2018.