Lawyers strike to mourn blasphemy defence lawyer

Advocate Rashid Rehman was shot thrice. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE

MULTAN: Lawyers in Multan went on strike Thursday to mourn a colleague who was shot dead for defending a university lecturer accused of blasphemy.

Gunmen stormed the office of defence lawyer Rashid Rehman on Wednesday evening and started firing indiscriminately, shooting him and two of his associates. Rehman, 50, was pronounced dead in hospital.

“We are observing a strike and no lawyer will appear in any court today to mourn and protest the killing of our colleague,” Sher Zaman Qureshi, president of the District Bar Association Multan, told AFP.


“We demand that the killers of Rashid Rehman should be arrested immediately,” Qureshi said.
He added that Rehman had told the association he had received death threats and they had asked the police to provide security, but the request was declined.

“Rashid Rehman had informed us that he was being threatened by various people to stop defending the blasphemy case, otherwise he will be killed,” Qureshi said.


Rehman was representing Junaid Hafeez, a lecturer at Bahauddin Zakariya University who is accused of making derogatory remarks against the Prophet Mohammed in March last year.

Hafeez was known at the university for his liberal views and the blasphemy case was registered after pressure from right-wing student groups, according to a student who did not wish to be named.

An official at the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said that for a year, no lawyer was prepared to take up the case over fears of attacks from extremist religious groups.

But Rehman, who was also a rights activist and coordinator of the HRCP, decided to defend Hafeez.
During the first hearing in March this year, which took place inside a prison for security reasons, Rehman received threats from the complainant’s lawyers.

“During the hearing the lawyers of the complainant told Rehman that he wouldn’t be present at the next hearing as he would not be alive,” said the HRCP in a statement issued after the incident in March.

Rehman was threatened in the presence of the judge, according to the HRCP.

Pakistan has strict blasphemy laws and rights campaigners say they are often used to settle personal disputes.

A recent report from a US government advisory panel said Pakistan used blasphemy laws more than any other country in the world, listing 14 people on death row and 19 others serving life sentences on blasphemy charges.

(By GNN & AFP)

Human rights lawyer Rashid Rehman shot dead

Advocate Rashid Rehman was shot thrice. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE

MULTAN / LAHORE: Notable human rights lawyer Rashid Rehman Advocate was shot dead at his office in Multan Wednesday evening.

According to police and eyewitnesses, two armed men opened fire at Rashid Rehman after entering his law chamber in Multan’s Kutchery Square, killing him on the spot. His colleague Nadeem Pervaiz Advocate and client Muhammad Afzal were seriously injured.

“The incident took place at 8:45pm,” said City Police Officer (CPO) Sultan Ahmed Chaudhry, in the jurisdiction of Chehlak police station.

Rehman, who was also the coordinator for the Punjab office of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), had been facing threats for pleading the case of a blasphemy suspect.

In a report published in The Express Tribune on April 13, Rehman said he was threatened by five people, both inside and outside the court, for representing Junaid Hafeez – a man accused of committing blasphemy using his Facebook account. Two of those who threatened him were part of the prosecution team in the case, he had said at the time


In addition to them, three unidentified men had also warned him to drop the case or he would not be able to come to court to represent Junaid, according to the deceased lawyer.

The Special Branch of the Punjab police later alerted law enforcement agencies, according to another report published in The Express Tribune on April 29. No case was registered against the three men at the time, however, even though Rehman had submitted an application in this regard.

Sharing details of the incident with The Express Tribune, a senior police official said two young men entered Rehman’s chambers around 8pm and said they wanted to contract a court marriage. After they left, two other men came to Rehman and made the same request, he said. Once the second pair left, the first two came back and opened fire at everyone in the office.

“This sequence of events suggests the incident was a target killing,” the police official said. “The two groups and their odd requests were likely a pretext to ensure they had the right target.”

He said the possibility that the men who threatened Rehman earlier were involved in the killing could not be ruled out.

Eyewitnesses narrated a similar sequence of events. “Two men entered Rehman’s chambers as petitioners first, and then masked themselves and opened fire after entering the office a second time,” one witness said.

Although they rushed to the spot upon hearing the gunshots, witnesses said the attackers had fled the scene by then.

The deceased and the injured were rushed to the Nishtar hospital, where doctors pronounced Rehman dead, while his colleague was said to be in critical condition.

(By Owais Jafri / Asad Kharal) Published in GNN & Tribune, May 8th, 2014.