QUETTA/ISLAMABAD   -   Senior Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Abdul Razzaq Shar was shot dead by armed motor­cyclists in a drive-by shooting on Quetta’s Airport Road on Tues­day, police said.

Jamil Shaheed Station House Officer (SHO) Gul Muhammad, while confirming the inci­dent, told the media that Shar was on his way to the Balochistan High Court (BHC) when he was targeted by un­identified persons on three motorcycles.

“According to eyewit­nesses, he was travel­ling in his relative’s ve­hicle,” the official said. Unknown gunmen sprayed 16 bullets at the lawyer. The police shifted the dead body to the Civil Hospital for post-mortem, howev­er, it was not done due to the insistence of his family members.

“A post-mortem ex­amination of his body was not carried out due to the family’s insis­tence,” said Police Sur­geon Ayesha Faiz while talking to media.

SHO Muhammad add­ed that the police had cordoned off the attack site and an investiga­tion was under way to arrest the suspects.

Soon after the inci­dent, the lawyers have boycotted the proceed­ings in all the courts af­ter the incident, while, the leadership of Bar Councils have also stopped more lawyers from rushing to the hospital. Condemning the shooting, Quetta Bar Associ­ation President Abid Kakar announced a complete boy­cott of the BHC and lower courts along with a three-day mourning period over Shar’s death. Senior lawyer Mir Ataullah Lango said Advocate Shar had recently filed a peti­tion in the court detailing the threats to his life. “He said his life was in danger and need­ed protection but the govern­ment failed to provide him protection.”

Lango maintained that a threat to life was always pres­ent if a person was a senior lawyer. “You handle many dif­ferent cases but cannot know where the danger is from.”

Meanwhile, Special Assis­tant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) Ataullah Tarar held PTI Chairman Imran Khan directly responsible for the murder of Advocate Shar.

He claimed that the tar­geted killing was related to a treason case against Im­ran, which Tarar said was reaching its conclusion in the next few hearings. A division bench of the BHC, comprising Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Muham­mad Amir Nawaz Rana, had heard Shar’s petition on June 29 seeking the former prime minister’s trial under Article 6 of the Constitution.

Advocate Shar had plead­ed that Imran had violated the Constitution by advis­ing the president to dissolve the National Assembly, and thus, should be tried under Article 6. The BHC bench, af­ter the initial hearing, had is­sued notices to Additional At­torney General Rauf Atta and Deputy Attorney General Mu­hammad Naeem Kasi and di­rected them to submit a reply on the next hearing sched­uled for June 7.