Four gunned down at Pindi district courts

As many as four people, including two real brothers, their nephew and a litigant were killed and one other injured in a firing incident here at district courts on Saturday.
According to eyewitnesses and police, four under-trial prisoners (UTPs) were being brought to the court of an additional judge, when they came under fire by their rival group.
Police said that the UTP including Chaudhry Shoukat Ali, his brother Arshad Ali and their nephew Muhammad Ghalib were being brought to the court of an additional judge when they were attacked in an ambush by the assailants.
Four assailants of their rival Kala Khan group opened gunfire at them with sophisticated weapons, killing all three on the spot and injuring their one relative Abdul Waheed, who was injured in the incident. According to police another litigant, who was later identified as Muhammad Iqbal, was also wounded in the attack. The injured were rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) where former succumbed to his injuries. Rescue 1122 and heavy contingent of police rushed to the crime scene.
Rescue 1122 officials shifted the bodies to DHQ for an autopsy. Later, the Civil Lines police arrested three out of four assailants who are identified as Tauqeer Ahmed, Zakir Ali and M Asif.
According to the police, deceased Shaukat, his brother Arshad Ali and nephew Ghalib were facing a murder trial for their alleged involvement in the killing three people from Kala Khan group that took place on November 22, 2009 at Dhoke Elahi Baksh.
CPO Azhar Hameed Khokar also rushed to the crime scene. He ruled out any possibility of a terrorist attack. He said that those were “pre-mediated killings over an old enmity”.
The injured, Abdul Waheed, who is being treated at DHQ, told the media that the law-enforcers in the court premises could have averted the attack. He alleged the policemen present at the crime scene were equally responsible for the killings.
The Saturday’s court shooting created panic in the neighbourhood. Lawyers, litigants and other people present at the crime scene ran for their lives when they heard gunfire. “It was really terrible to see those men being killed and that too in the court premises,” said Ali Nawaz, a stamp papers seller. The Rawalpindi District Bar Association has condemned the incident and termed it as a security failure. Addressing a press conference, DBA President Malik Javad Khalid demanded CPO Azhar Hammed and DCO Saqib Zafar should resign for their “failure”. He said the association would observe a strike on Monday against the killings.