PESHAWAR: The lawyers’ community on Tuesday observed a province-wide strike on the call of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council against murder of two colleagues in Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu on Sunday.

In Peshawar, lawyers mostly stayed away from the proceedings in different courts, including the Peshawar High Court.

The KP Bar Council has called upon the government to arrest the culprits at the earliest, failing which it would evolve a future course of action.

Lawyer Mohammad Imran Khan affiliated with Insaf Lawyers Forum was shot dead at Chambeli Chowk in Bannu. The police had registered an FIR on the complaint of the deceased’s brother, Taj Mohammad Khan against unidentified assailants.

Similarly, another lawyer, Malik Iqbal Khyara was fired at by unidentified attackers when he was going on a motorcycle near Daraband Khurd village in DI Khan. He was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Office-bearers of the PHC Bar Association and Peshawar District Bar Association demanded of the government to provide protection to lawyers. They said that from time to time they had been asking the government that attacks against lawyers were on the rise but the government had not taken any notice.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2019