Couple shot dead within Lahore court premises

Motive of fatal shooting yet to be determined

LAHORE:

A man and a woman were shot dead allegedly by the opposing party as they appeared before a local court in Lahore on Thursday.

The victims were identified by authorities as Sughra Bibi and Muhammad Amin.

They had appeared in the Lahore session court today ahead of a hearing when armed men opened fire at them. The motive of the fatal shooting is yet to be determined.

Notably, both victims were in court due to an ongoing case where three members of their family had been killed allegedly over a property dispute.

Last year, a two-month-old girl was strangled to death and her father and mother were slaughtered in the washroom of their residence with their hands cuffed behind their backs in Lahore by unidentified suspects.

Read Old feud: Two shot dead on court premises

According to police officials, 33-year-old advocate Amanat Ali and his family were murdered in their own home in a private housing society within the limits of Chung police station.

However, the elderly mother of Amanat, who was also present in the house at the time of the incident, was not hurt by the unidentified assailants.

Police officials had also been taking into account the alleged involvement of Amanat’s brother Ameen, one of the victims of today's shooting, in the gruesome triple murder case. Ameen had failed to show up at the crime scene despite the police's directions.

He had recently come out after spending a few years behind bars. The father of the deceased, Amanat had also been murdered a few years back, also allegedly over a property issue.

Occurrences of shootings on court premises are not uncommon. Earlier in May in a disturbing incident that exposed security lapses at the City Courts, a man opened fire with a pistol at his ex-wife after the hearing of a child custody case. The victim, 26-year-old Saima Saithu, was rushed to Civil Hospital in critical condition.