Lawyer arrested for giving gun to killer of US man in Peshawar court

PESHAWAR: A Pakistani lawyer has been arrested for allegedly giving a pistol to a teenager accused of gunning down a US citizen as he appeared in court on blasphemy charges, officials told AFP on Wednesday.

Last month´s killing of Tahir Ahmad Nasim in the northern city of Peshawar provoked outrage in the United States.

The US State Department has demanded action in his case and called for a reform of the controversial blasphemy laws under which he was being held.

Nasim, a member of the minority Ahmadiyya community, was under police escort when he was fatally shot in court on July 29.

According to investigating officer Lalzada Khan, junior lawyer Tufail Khan was arrested for “allegedly providing a pistol to the assassin to kill Nasim”.

“Tufail was produced before the judge in an anti-terrorist court. He was remanded into police custody for three days,” Khan told AFP. Authorities say 17-year-old Faisal Khan has confessed to the killing, claiming Tufail provided him with the pistol.

Lawyers don´t typically undergo a pat-down on going into Pakistan courts, and officials said Tufail had discreetly handed the pistol over to Faisal.