LAHORE: A Supreme Court lawyer and former secretary of the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) Latif Sra was allegedly gunned down along with his colleague in Muridke on Friday.

Sources said that Latif Sra (55) and Rana Sufyan advocate were going from Lahore to Narowal by a car. As they reached near Nangal Sahdan in the precincts of Saddar Muridke police, two unidentified motorcyclists ambushed their car and opened fire on it. Latif suffered multiple bullet injuries, including one in his head that proved fatal.

The police recovered bullet-ridden bodies of both the lawyers from the car.

Reports attribute the murder to negligence of Sheikhpura police when the multiple video clips of the slain lawyer surfaced on social media wherein he had sought security due to a plot of his murder by a gang of extortionists and drug dealers.

Latif Sra targeted for pursuing murder case of his brother; police ‘ignored’ death threats

The video statements of Latif revealed the background to his murder when the clips surfaced on social media soon after his killing. In a video clip, he had claimed that he was facing death threats from extortionists and drug dealers. He said the suspects associated with the network were influential and wanted to kill him for pursuing the case of his brother they had killed on April 8, 2022.

Latif Sra’s elder brother Hanif Sra was also gunned down by the same network in 2022 in the same area. Latif was the complainant in the murder case of his brother registered with Saddar Muridke police.

“The suspects have attacked me four times since I lodged the murder case of my elder brother Hanif Sra and the Saddar Muridke police are backing the criminals,” he alleged in his video statement.

The video showed him appealing repeatedly to the Sheikhpura police high-ups to provide him with security.

The double murder sent a wave of anguish among the legal fraternity that urged Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to fix responsibility for the murder of the two lawyers.

The office-bearers of the Punjab Bar Association, Lahore High Court and Lahore Bar Association condemned the incident. Saying that the lawyers’ protection was the government’s responsibility, they demanded action against the killers.

Sheikhpura Regional Police Officer (RPO) Athar Ismail rejected the allegations of not providing security to Latif Sra, saying whenever he visited his residence in Muridke he was escorted by a police team. On Friday, he said, Latif had met the DSP concerned for the same purpose, telling him that he was to go to his hometown and needed police security.

As the murder of the lawyer came to his notice, the RPO said, he inquired from the DSP as to why the police security was not provided to him on Friday.

“The DSP told me that he had gone to offer Friday prayers and as he returned to his office, he found that the lawyer was not present,” Mr Ismail claimed, asserting that the police never denied the lawyer security.

To a question, he said that the both parties, including Latif Sra’s and the accused nominated in the murder case of his brother, had reached reconciliation when the latter claimed to have paid Rs15m.

The RPO claimed that the rival party had reportedly developed differences with Latif Sra, alleging that he didn’t pay the amount to the family of his slain brother.

Following his murder, police parties have been dispatched for the arrests of the suspected killers, he said, adding that they were also exploring other possible motives behind his assassination.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2025