LAHORE - A disgruntled lawyer took out a gun and killed two rival advocates as they came out of the sessions court after a brief hearing, police said on Tuesday.
The attacker, Rana Kashif, was arrested by police shortly after the deadly shooting, the second within in a month on the Sessions Court premises.
The brazen attack triggered panic among lawyers and litigants during rush hours on Tuesday morning. People were running for safety as the gunfire began.
The deceased were identified as a lawyer, Rana Nadeem Anjum and his associate Awais Talib Awan.
Both the victims were rushed to Mayo Hospital where they were pronounced as brought dead. The bodies were later shifted to the morgue for autopsy.
A senior police investigator told The Nation that the shooting took place over some land dispute between the attacker and the deceased lawyers.
“They (victims and accused parties) were fighting a legal battle since they had a five-marla property dispute,” the official said and preferred his name not be mentioned.
After visiting the crime scene the officer said, “They opened fire outside the court of Sheikh Taseerul Rahman.”
Several lawyers reacted angrily the shooting and they managed to capture the gunman as he tried to escape from the crime scene. The attacker was thrashed by his colleagues and then handed over to police. The Islampura police registered a double murder case at noon and launched the investigation.
Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif took notice of the sessions firing incident and ordered the provincial police chief to send back a report within 24 hours. Police sources said that a joint investigation team was constituted by the government to investigate the incident.
Additional-IG Abubakar Khuda Bukhsh will lead the JIT while DIG Waqas Nazir, the district public prosecutor and experts from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency will work as member of the team.
Last month, four gunmen killed a police constable and a murder suspect at the sessions’ court. Enmity was cited as reason behind the shooting. The attackers managed escape after and police are yet to arrest them.