Unidentified assailants gunned down a senior lawyer and his son in the remits of the Malir City police station on Saturday.
Police said that Salahuddin Haider, 70, and his 35-year-old son, Ali Raza, were on their way to the courts in an auto-rickshaw, when they were attacked in Ghazi Town by at least two armed men on a motorcycle.
Reportedly, the attackers sprayed bullets at the lawyers when the rickshaw slowed down on a speed-breaker. The victims succumbed to their injuries on the way to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).
Haider was a founding member of the Malir District Bar Association (MDBA) and had served the bar as in the capacity of president from 1994 to 2000. Raza was also a lawyer and a member of the MDBA.
An officer at the Malir City police station told Pakistan Today that the deceased were going to the Malir district courts from their residence in Ghazi Town in an auto-rickshaw due to the holiday of CNG across the province on Saturday.
“Both the lawyers suffered bullets to their heads which proved fatal,” he said.
The news spread like wildfire and large number of lawyers, friends and family members rushed to the JPMC.
Soon after the incident, the lawyers of Malir courts boycotted the proceedings and blocked the National Highway for all kinds of traffic by staging a sit-in against the targeted killings, demanding immediate arrest of the killers.
Rangers and police personnel arrived at the spot and after negotiating with the protesters, restored vehicular traffic on the highway.
Strongly condemning the cold-blooded murder of lawyers, MDBA President Muhammad Ashraf Sammu said the police have failed to protect the lawyers’ community in the city.
“There is no rule of law in Karachi,” he said. “Lawyers are frequently being targeted in Karachi but the police have become a silent spectator.”
The Sindh High Court chief justice also took suo motu notice of the incident and appointed District and Sessions Judge Imdad Hussain to investigate the killings.
MDBA General Secretary Khalid Mehmood said the lawyers will boycott courts until the arrest of the killers. “We have called a general body meeting of the association tomorrow (Sunday),” he added.
Sindh Bar Association has also announced a boycott of court proceedings tomorrow (Monday) to protest the killing of the two lawyers.
