PESHAWAR: A senior lawyer of Peshawar High Court was wounded when his nephew opened fire on him in the former’s office over a property dispute on Wednesday, the police said.

The incident occurred in the Kali Bari locality of Peshawar Cantonment.

An official of West Cantonment police station told Dawn that Razaullah Khan Advocate was attacked inside his office located on the Tipu Sultan Road. He said that the lawyer was currently undergoing treatment at the Lady Reading Hospital.

The official said that apparently the attack was motivated by a property dispute, adding the injured lawyer had nominated his nephew, namely Jabir, in the FIR for attacking him.

He said the West Cantonment police had registered FIR under section 324 (attempted murder) of PPC. However, he said that the suspect was currently at large and the police were searching for him.

Razaullah Khan is a member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council and organiser of the Awami National Party-affiliated Malagri Wakeelan. He has also served as the president of Peshawar District Bar Association.

KP Bar Council, in a statement, condemned the attack on its senior member and said the lawyer had also come under attack in the past.

The statement quoting the bar’s vice-chairman Mohammad Ali Khan Jadoon said that the lawyers’ premier body had on several occasions taken up Mr Razaullah’s security with the police, including the provincial police chief, but security was not provided to him.

The bar also announced a province-wide strike against the attack on the senior lawyer.

Separately, in a statement, the Peshawar High Court Bar Association condemned the attack on Mr Razaullah and demanded of the law enforcement personnel to immediately arrest the culprit involved in the attack and give him exemplary punishment to put a halt to such incidents in future.

The PHCBA also asked the KP Bar Council to call a meeting of all the provincial bar presidents over the issue of security threats to the lawyers’ community, and delay in promulgation of the Lawyers Protection Act.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2022