HYDERABAD, Aug 1: A lawyer opened fire on his 20-year-old sister in a courtroom on Wednesday. The woman died on way to hospital while her husband remained unhurt and disappeared from the place.

According to sources, Javed Iqbal had shot dead Raheela Shaikh for marrying against her family’s wishes.

Justice Shahid Anwar Bajwa and Justice Azizur Rehman of the Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad bench had just entered the room when the incident took place.

Raheela and Zulfikar Sehto had married in a Hyderabad court after the woman’s family turned down the marriage proposal.

Javed Iqbal, soon after their marriage, had filed a kidnapping case on June 30 at a police station in Naushahro Feroze district.

Raheela Shaikh and Zulfikar Sehto were in court for the hearing of a joint petition they had filed.

Police arrested assailant Javed Iqbal and his cousin Saudagar Ali, shifting them to the Cantonment police station.

Javed Iqbal told Dawn in the lock-up that they had been trying to resolve the issue for last one month by asking Sahto’s family to either let his sister return home or ask one member of their tribe to marry a woman in the girl’s family, but they disagreed.

Javed Iqbal is a member of the Karachi Bar Association and works for a firm in the city.

Zulfikar Sahto, an employee of Sukkur Electric Supply Company, has lodged a murder case against Javed Iqbal. The shooting in the high court raised questions about the efficiency of security detail. An official of the Special Branch said lawyers object to body search on the plea that this delays them in reaching their workplaces. Not only lawyers but also clerks and office boys resent security checks, he added.

Sindh’s Advocate General Allah Bachayo Soomro told Dawn that from now on all advocates would have to submit themselves for searches.