GUJAR KHAN: A retired judge of the Lahore High Court (LHC) was shot dead and his niece injured on Tuesday on the Mandra-Chakwal Road in the jurisdiction of the Jatli police station.

Chaudhry Mahmood Akhtar, 70, a former LHC judge who was practicing as a lawyer in Rawalpindi, was returning from his native village when his car was intercepted by an unknown armed man near the Turkwal Village. The man opened fi re, killing the former judge on the spot.

His wife and niece, Sajida, who were accompanying him in the car, started throwing stones at the attacker, who shot his niece in the shoulder before fl eeing. Sajida was rushed to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Gujar Khan from where she was referred to the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalpindi. She is said to be in stable condition.

The Jatli police have registered a case and started investigations. The family is awaiting the post-mortem report. A police offi cial and some close friends of Chaudhry Mehmood Akhtar told Dawn the former judge may have been killed due to an old enmity.

Members of the Chakwal Bar Council came to the hospital when they heard of the incident. The former judge will be buried on Wednesday in his native village of Turkwal.

The Pakistan Bar Council has condemned the killing of Chaudhry Mehmood Akhtar and has urged the government to arrest his killers at the earliest.

Separately, 19-year-old Isma Pervez and her fiancé, Mohammad Bilal, both residents of Gujar Khan, were found dead on the roadside in Sandal, Gujar Khan.

The police have registered a murder case and started investigations.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2018