LAHORE: A man was allegedly shot dead by four men outside the district and sessions court in the presence of police personnel on Saturday.

Bilal Azim, 30, was murdered in cold blood as soon as he arrived at the court in connection with a kidnap case lodged against him at a local police station.

Witnesses said four armed men on motorcycles shot at Azim as soon as he arrived. A bullet hit his leg and he fell on the ground, while the assailants drove away.

Mobile phone footage of the incident, which surfaced later around noon, showed that two of the motorcyclists returned to the injured man lying on the ground near the parking stand reserved for the court visitors and opened fire on Azim again, making sure he was dead. The attackers then fled from the scene.

A police official claimed that Azim had married a girl of his choice, but her relatives had lodged a first information report against him. He had come to the court to seek bail. The attackers seemed to be family members of the girl, the official added.

Taking notice of the murder on court premises, District and Sessions Judge Khalid Nawaz directed police authorities to submit a report to fix responsibility on the police personnel present at the scene and not intervening.

He also directed the police high-ups to make sure the culprits were arrested besides taking stringent security measures to avoid such incidents in and outside the court premises.

The Islampura police registered a murder case against unidentified suspects and sent Azim’s body to the city morgue for autopsy.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2019