Attempted murder: Prisoner stabbed at sessions court

Attackers caught, are brothers of man prisoner accused of murdering.

LAHORE:

A man accused of murdering his cousin was stabbed several times by the brothers of his alleged victim at the Sessions Court on Thursday.

Iftikhar Ahmed, who was attacked while being led in handcuffs to the courtroom, was shifted to Mayo Hospital where he is in critical condition. Police said that the attackers, Muzammil and Ramazan, were caught by the constables escorting the prisoner and handed over to Islampura police.

Ahmed is accused of murdering is cousin Safdar a year ago in a case registered at Shafiqabad police station in Lahore. On Thursday, after his case came up before Additional Sessions Judge Abdul Qayyum, he was handcuffed and removed from the bakhshi khana, or judicial lock-up, by Constables Samiullah and Muhammad Shakeel.

As the policemen led the prisoner from the lock-up to the courtroom, Muzammil and Ramazan set upon him, stabbing him several times, police sources said. The incident caused panic outdoors as people began running around. The brothers tried to flee, but were nabbed by the constables. District and Sessions Judge Nazir Ahmed Gajana and police officials arrived at the scene and investigated the matter.

Muzammil and Ramazan later told investigation officers that they had attacked their cousin in revenge for the murder of their brother. They said that they had chosen Thursday for the attack as they had expected him to get bail. They said that they had smuggled in the knives via the sewage system, so the weapons had not been detected at the court entrance. They had fished them out of the gutter once inside the premises.

The assistant moharrar at Islampura police station said that they were waiting for the prisoner’s family, who were travelling to Lahore from Vehari, to make an application for an FIR against Muzammil and Ramazan.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2013.