PESHAWAR: A court on Tuesday remanded the confessed shooter, who gunned down senior lawyer Latif Afridi in Peshawar High Court’s bar room, to police custody for two days.
Latif, the former Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president, was killed after being shot six times at the Peshawar High Court (PHC) bar room on Monday, in what police said was a family feud shooting. The police presented the prime suspect, Adnan Afridi- who had been ar-rested from the crime scene right after the shooting — before Judicial Magistrate Badar Munir’s court amid strict security.
The police requested the court to grant physical remand of Adnan for in-vestigations into the murder case. They apprised the court that the suspect has admitted to “killing” Latif in his confessional statement, citing “per-sonal enmity” as the reason.
“Suspect’s custody is required for further investigations,” the police official said. The court accepted the police’s request and remanded the suspect in police custody for two days.
The former SCBA president’s funeral prayers were offered at Bagh-e-Naran in Peshawar’s Hayatabad area amid strict security.
The funeral prayer was attended by PHC Chief Justice Qaiser Rasheed Khan, other judges, senior lawyers, politicians and social activists. Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Awami National Party leader Iftikhar Hussain, and Jamat-e-Islami leader Inayatullah were also present. After the prayers were offered, Latif was laid to rest in his hometown.
Meanwhile, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Umar Ata Bandial termed Latif’s murder a “big loss”. “Latif Afridi was a great personality,” CJP Bandial said during a hearing of s case in the apex court.
He labelled the murder of the senior lawyer an unfortunate incident. He asked lawyer Iftikhar Gillani whether Latif belonged to Kohat. However, the lawyer told the CJP that he belonged to the frontier region.
Former SCBA president Latif was shot dead inside the PHC’s bar room on Monday. The senior lawyer was moved to the Lady Reading Hospital after the shooting but was pronounced dead upon arrival. The medical facility’s administration said that six bullets were fired at Latif.
Speaking to the media, SSP Operations Kashif Abbasi said the killing seemed to be an upshot of a blood feud between the two families; however, further investigation was underway.
When asked about the security arrangements in the high court, the police official said they were looking into it and action would be taken if any lapse was found.
It may be noted that Latif 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 Afridi, his wife, a one-and-half-year grandson and daughter-in-law were en route to Islamabad from Peshawar via Swabi when unidentified 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 rele-vant 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 law-yer’s involvement in the murder. –Agencies
