PESHAWAR: The police arrested a gunman for injuring three people, including a senior lawyer, inside the barroom of the sessions court here on Saturday.

A spokesman for the police said Saeedullah of Chamkani opened fire at Lal Sher over an old enmity.

He said Lal Sher was critically wounded in the firing, while senior lawyer Yousaf Riaz and canteen boy Tariq suffered injuries.

The spokesman said the police had arrested the suspected attacker.

CM orders inquiry into incident, which left three injured

A police official at the East Cantonment police station told Dawn that injured Lal Sher nominated in several cases was apparently in the court to attend a hearing.

He said Saeed attacked Lal Sher for allegedly killing a man, who reared him.

The official said it was not clear how the suspect took the gun into the heavily-guarded court as even the policemen had to leave their guns outside due to security restrictions.

He said it had yet to be ascertained if the incident occurred due to a lapse on part of police guards or a lawyer or a woman smuggled the gun into the court premises.

Yousaf Riaz has also served as the vice president of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association.

The lawyers later boycotted the courts on the call of the Peshawar District Bar Association, while the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the shooting incident.

The KPBC meeting chaired by council chairman Malik Khaliq Dad Awan condemned the firing incident and demanded strict action against the suspect.

It also announced protest across the province on Monday.

By adopting a resolution, the meeting demanded of the provincial government to act on the incident and ensure foolproof security of the court’s premises.

It said the council had repeatedly written to the provincial police chief for court security but to no avail.

The council asked lawyers not to appear before courts on Monday and said all bar associations should share their suggestions for future course of action with the council within a week.

Later in the day, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan ordered inquiry into the firing incident.

Meanwhile, the magistrate sent a local college’s assistant professor to jail on 14 days remand for roughing up an elderly traffic warden here on Friday.

The city police produced Riaz Ali in the court.

Driving a car, the man had allegedly tried to hit traffic warden Abdul Ghafur near the Peshawar Cantonment Railway Station before beating him up.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2018