CNN
—
A prominent Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist was shot dead in court on Monday building in the northwestern city of Peshawar, according to police and a witness.
Abdul Latif Afridi, 79, a former president of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association, was shot six times in a rest room of the Peshawar High Court, the capital city’s police officer Muhammad Ijaz Khan told CNN.
Khan identified the suspect as 24-year-old lawyer Adnan Sami Afridi, not directly related to the late Afridi, and said he was detained.
Witness Hayat Roghani said the suspected gunman raised his hands in surrender after the shooting, saying he had taken revenge for his father’s death. Police also told CNN that the suspected gunman said it was a revenge killing.
The suspect’s father, lawyer Samiullah Afridi, was killed by unknown gunmen in 2015. At the time, two militant groups claimed responsibility for killing Afridi, who worked for the doctor who helped the CIA search for Osama bin Laden. .
Although a strong police contingent is normally deployed at the Peshawar court, the body of the lawyers is not searched upon entering. Security arrangements at the court have previously been called into question, especially after a teenager shot and killed an American citizen of Pakistani origin who was on trial on blasphemy charges inside the courtroom in 2020.
Latif Afridi, also a former lawmaker, had been an outspoken critic of alleged interference by the powerful military in Pakistani politics and Islamist militancy.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued a declaration on Twitter expressing their grief and “deep sadness” over the death of Latif Afridi.
He also condemned what he called the “worsening law and order situation” in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, of which Peshawar is the capital.