M A I N   N E W S

Sharif’s lawyer shot dead

ISLAMABAD, March 10 (PTI, Reuters) — A top lawyer, defending Nawaz Sharif, and his two assistants were shot dead in Karachi today by four masked gunmen giving rise to a sense of fear among other counsel helping the deposed Premier in the hijacking and other cases. The well-dressed killers, carrying Kalashnikov rifles and pistols, were seen running out of lawyer Iqbal Radh’s second floor chamber in the heart of the city after killing him, his assistant Shehzad Khetari and office boy Sajjad, reports reaching here said. One of the assailants kept guard outside, while three others barged into Radh’s office and locked it from inside before opening fire, the reports said. Radh, who was wearing his lawyer’s robe, suffered several wounds in the chest and died on the spot. A former Advocate-General of Sindh, he was also legal adviser to Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League.

KARACHI: A police officer inspects the body of Iqbal Raad, a key lawyer for deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, at his office in Karachi, on Friday. Raad was shot dead along with two other people by unidentified gunmen inside his office. — AP/PTI

Witnesses said they heard the sound of gunfire before they saw the killers escaping.

The bodies have been taken for post-mortem. The police said no one had claimed responsibility for the attack and it was too early to speculate on the motive for the killing.

Senior Superintendent of Police Akhtar Hussain Gorchani, however, reportedly said that it might be an attempt to “sabotage the smooth conduct of Sharif’s trial”.

Fearing for the lives of other lawyers defending Sharif, defence counsel Khwaja Sultan said they would contact the court for “proper security”.

Meanwhile, the defence lawyer, who was shot dead in Karachi today, had received threats over the past few days, the acting Head of Sharif’s party said.

“For the past some days he was complaining that he was receiving threats,” party leader Raja Zafarul Haq said about Iqbal Radh. Haq said he did not know from whom the threats came.

Haq said the shooting would hamper the work of the other lawyers defending Sharif in the trial on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping and hijacking, which carries a possible death sentence.

“Certainly the whole (defence) team would be scared,” he said. “It will certainly hamper the defence team”.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’ military government expressed shock over the killing of deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif’s Lawyer Iqbal Radh and promised to make a thorough investigation into the case.

An official spokesman said that no effort would be spared to conduct an immediate enquiry into all aspects of this “terrible incident” and all possible efforts would be made to increase security for both the prosecution and defence lawyers appearing in the trial.

In Washington the White House today denounced the murder of the lawyer, calling it a “horrific act of violence”.

“We obviously condemn this kind of horrific act of violence,” White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said when asked about the killing earlier today in Karachi.

He added that there were no plans to cancel the visit of President Bill Clinton to Pakistan on March 25 as a result of the murder.