2 injured in shooting at Sheikhupura court

‘Retired colonel, opponent in land dispute shot by colonel’s gunman’.

LAHORE:

Two persons involved in a dispute over land were shot and injured, one seriously, at the Ferozewala Katcheri on Tuesday.

Ghulam Murtaza has a head injury and is said to be in critical condition, while Colonel (retired) Bashir was hurt in the leg. Both were taken to Mayo Hospital after the shooting incident at the court.

Naseemullah, a resident of Dharor Hind village, told the police in his application for an FIR that Col (r) Bashir and his accomplices Muhammad Hanif, Umair Asif and two unidentified people attacked them at the katcheri.

Arif Bhatti, a witness, told The Express Tribune that the two parties came across each other at around 9am and started yelling and fighting. He said a gunman with the colonel who had been standing outside the katcheri then entered the venue and opened fire, hitting the colonel and Murtaza. The gunman then fled, he said.

The colonel’s lawyer said that his client had appeared at the court for a bail case. He said that the two parties have been in a feud for a long time.

District and Sessions Judge Chaudhry Iftikhar and Sheikhupura District Police Officer Hyder Ashraf and other officials later visited the crime scene. The executive committee of the Ferozewala Bar Association met after the incident to condemn security arrangements at the katcheri. They decided to discuss security at a general house meeting on Wednesday.

This was the fourth shooting at the Ferozewala Katcheri over the last few years in which four people including a lawyer have been killed.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2012.