PESHAWAR: Former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and senior lawyer Latif Afridi was killed in firing inside the Peshawar High Court (PHC) bar room on Monday.
The senior lawyer was moved to the Lady Reading Hospital of Peshawar but the facility said that the senior lawyer was dead on arrival. The hospital administration added that six bullets were fired at Afridi.
According to the police, the assailant is in their custody. He was identified as Adnan.
The police are investigating how did the gunman manage to get inside the high court premises despite the security.
SSP Operations Kashif Abbasi said that attacker Adnan Afridi s/o Abdul Sami Afridi has been taken into custody from the crime scene.
He said that it seems a matter of personal enmity between the two families while further investigations are underway.
When asked about the security arrangements at the high court, the police official said they are looking into it and action will be taken if any lapse was found.
It may be noted that Latif Afridi was acquitted in a murder case by Swat Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Judge Aftab Afridi and his three family members a few weeks ago.
He was booked along with nine others in the case of the judge’s assassination.
As per details, Aftab Aftab, his wife, a one-and-half-year grandson and daughter-in-law were en route to Islamabad from Peshawar via Swabi when unknown assailants attacked his car near the Ambar Interchange in April 2021.
However, Latif, the then-SCBA president, had denied his involvement in the incident and said that he and his son had been falsely implicated in the case. He had also assured the authorities of fully cooperating with the relevant agencies.
The judge’s family, however, in a press conference rejected the verdict and requested the high court for justice, saying they have evidence of the lawyer’s involvement in the murder.
