PESHAWAR: An anti-terrorism court remanded the suspected killer of senior lawyer and politician Abdul Latif Afridi in the custody of police for another day on Thursday as the relevant provision of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) was added to the FIR of the killing in a gun attack.

The court ordered the production of suspect Adnan Samiullah Afridi before it today (Friday).

The police produced him before the court after the completion of his two-day physical remand amid tight security.

Heavy deployment of police personnel was seen in and outside the Judicial Complex. The suspect was taken to the complex in an armoured personnel carrier. The police didn’t allow irrelevant people to enter the courtroom or stand on the way to it.

The suspect was remanded in the police’s custody by a judicial magistrate on Jan 17 for two days. However, as Section 7 of the ATA was added to the FIR, he was presented before the ATC.

Provision of ATA added to FIR

The police’s relevant investigation officer informed the court that the offence of firing or the use of explosives by any device, including bomb blast, on the court’s premises was included in the schedule of offences of the ATA, soSection 7 of the ATA had been included in the FIR.

He said the police needed the custody of the accused for interrogating him to get further information from him regarding the murder.

Earlier, the FIR registered by the East Cantonment Police Station had Section 302 (intentional murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Mr Afridi was killed in the bar room on the premises of the Peshawar High Court on Jan 16 with the suspected gunman being taken into custody on the spot.

During initial interrogation, the accused admitted to killing Mr Afridi, a former president of Supreme Court Bar Association and a former MNA, over a family dispute.

Meanwhile, the lawyers mourned the killing of Mr Afridi for the third consecutive day.

They did not appear before any court in the districts attached to the principal seat of the high court, including the provincial capital’s.

While the Pakistan Bar Council and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council had given strike call for Jan 17, the PHCBA announced that three days of mourning would be observed and lawyers won’t appear before the court until Jan 19 in the courts in Peshawar as well as other districts attached to the principal seat of the high court.

The PHC Bar association has already constituted a six-member legal panel for pursuing the case of Mr Afridi murder.

The panel comprises senior lawyers Syed Abdul Fayyaz, Hussain Ali, Mohammad Saeed Khan, Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, Barrister Amirullah Chamkani and Asfandyar Khan.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2023