Lawyer provided assassin gun to kill blasphemy accused: Peshawar police
He was arrested after the killer named him in his confession
Supporters of a religious group Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nubuwwat, march during a rally in support of Khalid Khan, who killed a man allegedly accused of blasphemy, in Peshawar on July 31, 2020. (AFP)
A 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 Peshawar provoked outrage in the United States. The US State Department has demanded action in his case.
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 on Tuesday 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.
Washington has said Nasim was lured from his home in Illinois to Pakistan in 2018, when he was arrested on blasphemy charges.
A senior police official told AFP that Nasim held dual Pakistan-US nationality.
