Not safe: Lawyer shot dead, three students injured in attack

Shabab-i-Milli district president nominated in FIR.

PASROOR: Lawyers staged protests and boycotts here on Thursday over the killing of a bar association member.

Pasroor Bar Association member Rana Muhammad Ashfaq Advocate, 27, was driving a car from Manjke village to the Pasroor courts on Wednesday. He picked up three school students on the way. When the car reached a sugar mill, four unknown motorcyclists opened fire at the car.

Ashfaq died on the spot while the three students - Farhan, Faizan and Owais - also received bullet wounds. They were taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Police conducted a postmortem and returned the body to relatives of the deceased.



The relatives then placed the body on Pasroor-Sialkot Road and blocked it for several hours to demand the arrest of the killers.

Sialkot DPO Afzaal Kausar arrived and set up an inquiry team including the Pasroor City, Saddar and Badiyana SHOs. They have been instructed to arrest the accused as early as possible.

City police IO ASI Muhammad Akhtar said they have registered a case against brothers Adnan Ikram Bhatti and Shabab-i-Milli Sialkot President Muhsen Ikram Bhatti from Kamalpur Chistian village and Rana Muhammad Akram from Mangke village.



He said the Ashfaq had a land dispute with Adnan and Muhsen Bhatti. Punjab Bar Council member Amjad Ali Bajwa and Pasroor Bar Association president Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf called a strike at the courts upon hearing the news. Various other bar associations took out a protest and stopped work.

Local lawyers Chaudhry Khalid Masood, Tariq Javed, Chaudhry Ilyas Ali Jatol, Chaudhry Altaf Sohail, Chaudhry Nasir Khan Sindho and Rana Jameelur Rehman Advocate condemned the killing and demanded the immediate arrest of the suspects.

The lawyers have announced a strike today (Friday).

WITH INPUT FROM MAQSOODUL HUSNAIN

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