Incidents targeting judges or members of their families

LAHORE: The reported abduction of Advocate Ovais Ali Shah, the son of Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, signifies that risks and perils continue to loom large over the lives of sitting Pakistani judges, their immediate family members and other important judicial officials, as it has been the case in countries like Italy, Columbia, Iraq and the United States etc., research carried out by the “Jang Group and Geo Television Network” shows.

Here follow some major incidents of violence/terrorism and personal enmity that have targeted Pakistani arbiters, their vulnerable blood relatives and other vital court officials in recent years:

On August 5, 2015, unknown men had killed an additional district and sessions judge, Tahir Khan Niazi, in Rawalpindi's Sadiqabad Town area.

Three unknown gunmen on a motorcycle had opened fire on the vehicle of the judge as he was leaving his Judges Colony residence in Sadiqabad area of Rawalpindi. The assailants had managed to escape from the scene after the attack.

In November 2014, one person was killed in an explosion targeting a vehicle carrying anti-terrorist court judge Nazeer Ahmed Langove in Quetta. The judge had remained unhurt.

In June 2014, unknown gunmen had opened fire in Quetta, killing Environmental Tribunal judge Sakhi Sultan.

In March 2014, an Additional Sessions judge Rafaqat Awan was among the dozen people killed in an attack on an Islamabad court.

In February 2014, Aqib Shahani, the son of District and Sessions Judge Jacobabad, Khalid Hussain Shahani, was killed.

On June 26, 2013, Sindh High Court Judge Maqbool Baqir was attacked by militants in Karachi while he was on his way to the court. Justice Baqir had survived.

On August 30, 2012, gunmen had shot dead a Quetta judge Zulfiqar Naqvi along with his driver and police bodyguard in a suspected sectarian attack.

On March 18, 2012, a policeman had perished after unknown men had opened fire at the residence of Multan’s Shariat Court judge.

On July 17, 2007, at least 17 people were killed as a suicide bomber had blown himself up outside the venue of the district bar council convention in Islamabad, killing some PPP political workers waiting for the arrival of the then deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was due to address a lawyers’ convention.

This attack had come on the heels of the bloodshed at Lal Masjid, which had claimed over 100 lives just a week earlier.

On May 13, 2007, Syed Hammad Raza, a senior official at Pakistan’s Supreme Court, was shot dead near his home in Islamabad. The slain official was a close associate of the then CJ Iftikhar Chaudhary.

On February 17, 2007, a suicide bomber had killed 15 people including a judge Wahid Durrani inside a courtroom in Quetta.

Muhammad Jamshed Jadoon, an Anti-Terrorism Court judge in Gilgit, was murdered in a public park in broad daylight in June 2006.

On July 25, 2003, three civil judges and five prisoners were killed inside the Sialkot district jail, while the lower judiciary arbiters were on their monthly judicial inspection.

Police had later raided the prison to free 10 judges taken hostage by armed prisoners, who were demanding their freedom in return for that of the judges.

Besides demanding a safe passage from the jail, the captors also wanted a bus and guns from the negotiating authorities.

The judges who had died in the shootout were identified asadditional district and sessions judge Sagheer Anwar and civil judges Shahid Ranjha and Asif Mumtaz Cheema.

In 2003, the then Lahore High Court judge (later elevated as Chief Justice Lahore High Court and thereafter as a Supreme Court arbiter) Khawaja Sharif and his wife Ayesha Sharif were stabbed by their former domestic servant Muhammad Yousaf at their residence in Lahore.

The servant had been relieved of his duties for stealing. Justice Sharif was stabbed in the face and neck in the wee hours of the day when he had got up to offer Tahajjud prayers.

In 1996, Justice Nizam-ud-Din Ahmed of the Sindh High Court and his son Nadeem Ahmed Advocate were killed outside their Karachi residence.

The charge sheet had attributed the double murder case to a dispute over a prized land plot near Karachi’s Awami Markaz at Shahra-e-Faisal, as Justice Nizam had reportedly opposed its commercialisation and illegal allotment.

Son of Justice Rashid Aziz Khan, who was LHC CJ from 1997 to 2000, was severely injured in an attack in Lahore.