PESHAWAR: High court lawyer Razaullah Khan succumbed to injuries on Friday night three days after a gun attack in his office here.

The police nominated the lawyer’s nephew, Jaabir, as the gunman in the FIR and declared a property dispute as the cause of firing in Kali Bari area of Peshawar cantonment area.

A spokesman for the city police told Dawn that Razaullah Khan died of critical bullet wounds at the Lady Reading Hospital during treatment.

He said the body was shifted to the Khyber Medical College for postmortem.

The CCTV footage of the armed attack, which went viral on social media, showed that the lawyer was sprayed with multiple bullets in his office by a man standing outside.

Mr Razaullah was a member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council and provincial organiser of the Malgari Wakeelan, the lawyers’ wing of the Awami National Party. He had served as the president of the Peshawar District Bar Association as well.

In a statement issued here, the ANP said that the lawyer’s funeral prayers were offered in his native Pishtakhara village on the outskirts of Peshawar city.

ANP provincial general secretary Sardar Hussain Babak, Senator Hidayatullah Khan, Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Peshawar city mayor Haji Zubair Ali and scores of people attended the funeral.

In a separate statement, provincial president of the ANP Aimal Wali Khan expressed sorrow over the killing of Razaullah Khan.

He criticised the police over failure to arrest the attacker.

Mr Aimal demanded the immediate arrest of the attacker and demanded his early punishment.

Also, the Peshawar Bar Association held a cabinet meeting with its president, Ali Zaman advocate, and offered Fateha for the lawyer.

In a statement issued here, the PBA said that it condemned the station house officer of the West Cantonment police station for sharing the closed-circuit television footage of the gun attack on social media.

It demanded the suspension of the SHO over his ‘irresponsible attitude’ and said that the lawyers were enraged by the CCTV footage going viral on social media.

The association also expressed annoyance about the failure of the police and other law- enforcement agencies to protect lawyer Razaullah, who was target-killed in one of the busiest areas of the provincial capital.

It also flayed the police’s failure to arrest the gunman raising question about the force’s efficiency.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2022