LAHORE, Oct 20: The Old Anarkali police on Saturday took three people into custody for questioning in connection with the murder of senior lawyer Shakir Ali Rizvi.

Advocate Rizvi was going to the Lahore High Court along with his nephew Syed Naeem Abbas Rizvi and driver Sohail Masih when two armed motorcyclists approached them near court and shot the lawyer.

The police arrested Pervaiz Butt and two others as the main suspect (Pervaiz) is currently pursuing the murder case of his employee against the victim’s nephew. They ruled out the possibility of sectarian dimension.

SSP (Investigation) Sohail Akhtar Sokahira told Dawn that the police were looking into different aspects and had yet to establish anything. He said 55-year-old Shakir of Islampura was living a normal professional life and the family had not nominated anyone.

“It is premature to establish the motive and identify of the killers at this point of time. We are interrogating a person in connection with this case,” Mr Sokhaira said.

Ruling out the possibility of sectarian assassination, he said the suspects first hit the driver with butt of guns and then opened fire on Shakir with small weapons.

The deceased was laid to rest at Mominpura graveyard after the police handed over the body to the family.

IGP REPORT: The Punjab inspector general police on Saturday submitted before the LHC a preliminary report about the murder.

The LHC chief justice had taken suo motu notice of the incident on Friday and directed the IGP to submit report within 24 hours.

The report submitted to the LHC registrar said a case on complaint of Syed Naeem Abbas Rizvi had been registered and section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act added to the FIR. It said three investigation teams had been constituted for the arrest of the culprits.

It said the SP (investigation) of Civil Lines had been directed to monitor the investigation.

PROTEST: Lawyers on Saturday continued their strike by boycotting court proceedings.

In a statement, former SCBA president Asma Jahangir condemned the murder of Advocate Rizvi. She expressed concern over growing incidents of violence, especially against lawyers.

She lamented that killers of Advocate Nasrullah Warraich had not been arrested so far and urged the government to ensure protection of lawyers.